Jesus said, “Blessed is the man who has suffered and found Life.”
This life is naturally fraught with sorrow and suffering and great challenges. Trials and tribulations come and go and they are unavoidable. If you must endure sorrow and suffering, then let it not be without purpose and meaning. Seek to draw from it the blessings that may be found in it, so that, when the period of sorrow or suffering has passed, you will have the good from it. When you meet the challenges of life in this way, you will naturally be blessed and your faith will grow stronger and your soul more refined. You will find Life!
St. James has written, “Whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let your endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.” Yes, indeed! Be joyful in the face of trials and tribulations and sorrow and suffering will be transformed! When met in this way, every challenge of life is an opportunity for growth and development of the soul and spiritual evolution toward Christ-consciousness.
You might say to me, “This is impossible!” but I would say that nothing is impossible with God, and if you ask the Lord with faith to bless you to endure every trial and tribulation with joy, the Lord will be with you, will empower you, and will give you what you ask. So it is with anything you might feel lacking—wisdom, understanding, patience, compassion, forgiveness, hope, love, and so on. Anything you need, if you become open and receptive, the Holy Spirit will deliver to you as a gift from the Lord God above. You must only have faith and seek to walk in holiness.
There is nothing gained by falling into oneself in times of sorrow or suffering. Rather, the trials that come are the call to let go and let be and to get out of oneself, a call to self-transcendence and compassion. You can use the suffering that comes to open your heart with love and compassion for all who are experiencing such suffering and to lift you up out of yourself into the Christ-self. This is what it means to find life.
When trials come and you fall into yourself and close your heart, suffering is increased and intensified. When you open your heart, making room for everyone and everything and for the Lord, suffering is decreased and passes more swiftly. This is simple wisdom of life experience. There is also profound spiritual wisdom involved here, for if you endure suffering for the sake of dispelling the negative karma and sins of the world, you enter into a covenant-continuum with the Lord himself, uplifting the holy sparks of the klippot, which are bound in the Darkness, and restoring them to the Body of Light of Adam Kadmon. In this way, you draw yourself nearer unto the Lord, putting on the image of the Lord and uniting yourself with the Christ-Spirit. One who passes through times of suffering in this way has, in the face of trial, the joy of the resurrection and eternal life.
It must be said that there will naturally be a testing of the faith of an initiate and that part of the process of initiation are the ordeals that precede fruition. They are as labor pains in the birth of the Holy Child, and you need to understand that such suffering is an integral part of the joy of rebirth in the Holy Spirit. One who is unwilling to undergo the pains of labor is unwilling to experience the joy of the birth of the Christ-self, and surely there shall be no birth without also the pains of the labor. You must bear in mind, in the midst of the ordeals that come, that, when the Holy Child is born in you, all suffering shall swiftly be forgotten and there will come a perfect peace and delight. You must not turn back from the ordeal; instead, you must look forward and pass through it. May you endure with joy the pains of labor consciously and so receive the blessing the Lord would have for you—eternal life!