{"id":16375,"date":"2018-01-24T08:52:01","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T13:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16375"},"modified":"2018-01-24T08:57:38","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T13:57:38","slug":"the-mystery-of-suffering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16375","title":{"rendered":"The Mystery of Suffering"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QFiQRHpqKf0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Mystery of Suffering<br \/>\nWednesday, January 24, 2018<\/p>\n<p>It is much easier to appreciate the glory of Jesus\u2019 resurrection than his painful crucifixion. Yet, Mark\u2019s Gospel, written around 65 to 70 AD, focuses on Jesus\u2019 \u201csuffering servanthood.\u201d Christians believe that we are \u201csaved by the death and resurrection of Jesus.\u201d The key is to put both together. We need to deeply trust and allow both our own dyings and our own certain resurrections, just as much as Jesus did! This is the full pattern of transformation. If we trust both, we are indestructible. That is how Jesus \u201csaves\u201d us from meaninglessness, cynicism, hatred, and violence\u2014which is indeed death.<br \/>\nGod is Light, yet this full light is hidden in darkness (John 1:5) so only the sincere seeker finds it. It seems we all must go into darkness to see the light, which is counter-intuitive for the ego. We resisted this language of \u201cdescent\u201d and overwhelmingly made Christianity into a religion of \u201cascent,\u201d where Jesus became a self-help \u201csavior\u201d instead of a profound wisdom-guide who really transforms our minds and hearts.<br \/>\nIn recent centuries, reason, medicine, technology, and efficiency have allowed many modern, middle- and upper-class people to rather \u201csuccessfully\u201d avoid the normal and ordinary \u201cpath of the fall.\u201d Yet the perennial and mature tradition of all world religions, and even the modern addiction recovery movement, believes that growth comes through some form of \u201cfalling upward,\u201d not climbing upward, which is all about ego. [1]<br \/>\nMany of the happiest and most authentic people I know love a God who walks with crucified people and thus reveals and \u201credeems\u201d their plight as God\u2019s own. For them, God is not observing human suffering from a distance but is somehow in human suffering with us and for us. Such a God includes our suffering in the co-redemption of the world, as \u201call creation groans in one great act of giving birth\u201d (Romans 8:22).<br \/>\nIs this possible? Could it be true that we \u201cmake up in our bodies all that still has to be undergone for the sake of the Whole Body\u201d (Colossians 1:24)? Are we somehow partners with the divine? Of course we are! In fact, I think that is the whole point. The mystic knows there is only one suffering and we all participate in it together: the eternal suffering love of God.<br \/>\nJesus takes on our suffering, bears it, and moves through it to resurrection. This is \u201cthe paschal mystery.\u201d We too can follow this path, actively joining God\u2019s loving solidarity with all suffering since the foundation of the world. Jesus does not ask us to worship him. He asks us to follow him by trusting and allowing this risky but revealing journey. If God is indeed Infinite Love, then humans and all of creation are Infinite Becoming (which is the core meaning of \u201cdivinization\u201d or theosis, the process of salvation).<br \/>\nWhen I was young, I was taught that in heaven we would look at God for all eternity (the \u201cbeatific vision\u201d). This sounded rather boring to a little boy. Perhaps heaven is not seeing God for all eternity, but seeing like and with God for all eternity.<\/p>\n<p>Gateway to Presence:<br \/>\nIf you want to go deeper with today\u2019s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation.<\/p>\n<p>===========================<\/p>\n<p><strong>God\u2019s Overpowering Purpose<\/strong><br \/>\nBy Oswald Chambers<\/p>\n<p>I have appeared to you for this purpose\u2026 \u2014Acts 26:16<br \/>\nThe vision Paul had on the road to Damascus was not a passing emotional experience, but a vision that had very clear and emphatic directions for him. And Paul stated, \u201cI was not disobedient to the heavenly vision\u201d (Acts 26:19). Our Lord said to Paul, in effect, \u201cYour whole life is to be overpowered or subdued by Me; you are to have no end, no aim, and no purpose but Mine.\u201d And the Lord also says to us, \u201cYou did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go\u2026\u201d (John 15:16).<br \/>\nWhen we are born again, if we are spiritual at all, we have visions of what Jesus wants us to be. It is important that I learn not to be \u201cdisobedient to the heavenly vision\u201d \u2014 not to doubt that it can be attained. It is not enough to give mental assent to the fact that God has redeemed the world, nor even to know that the Holy Spirit can make all that Jesus did a reality in my life. I must have the foundation of a personal relationship with Him. Paul was not given a message or a doctrine to proclaim. He was brought into a vivid, personal, overpowering relationship with Jesus Christ. Acts 26:16 is tremendously compelling \u201c\u2026to make you a minister and a witness\u2026.\u201d There would be nothing there without a personal relationship. Paul was devoted to a Person, not to a cause. He was absolutely Jesus Christ\u2019s. He saw nothing else and he lived for nothing else. \u201cFor I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified\u201d (1 Corinthians 2:2).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Mystery of Suffering Wednesday, January 24, 2018 It is much easier to appreciate the glory of Jesus\u2019 resurrection than his painful crucifixion. Yet, Mark\u2019s Gospel, written around 65 to 70 AD, focuses on Jesus\u2019 \u201csuffering servanthood.\u201d Christians believe that we are \u201csaved by the death and resurrection of Jesus.\u201d The key is to put [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16375"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16375"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16378,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16375\/revisions\/16378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}