DOES THE UNIVERSE BRING PAIN INTO OUR LIVES?

    When people go through a difficult time, many say things like, "why is God doing this to me?"
  "Is the universe testing me?" or, "it must be part of God's plan."... But is it really, does the Divine send pain and trial into our lives to test us or teach us some kind of lesson? Let's dissect this concept for a moment and see whether or not there is any truth to it. First and foremost, we can all be the victims of our own bad decisions. If we make bad life choices, then our days will likely be chaotic and filled with drama. The universe or God has nothing to do with it.  It is possible however, that if we keep making the same critical mistake over and over, the universe will deliver a lesson to our door to try and get us to stop sabotaging our own lives. And yes, those lessons can be a bit painful. But again, these lessons are because of our own bad choices and limited thinking.

    But does the Divine cause us to get fired from our job, lose our spouse or come down with some terminal disease just on a whim? Might we be smitten with a car accident or cancer for some minor infraction? Absolutely not! No one is perfect, everyone makes little mistakes every day of their lives. The universe is not going to punish you for these as if it were a cruel task master. Think about it, all of the great religions of the world tell us that God is love. Would love seriously injure or harm its children just for the sake of doing so? Would God be God if he/she brought pain into our lives just so he/she could take it away to prove that he/she is all-powerful and good? That would be a bit sadistic. Yet many hold up the story of Job in the Bible as the gleaming example of God sending us hellish trials just to test our faith. However, if we look at Job from a more metaphorical/metaphysical vantage point, as many do, we see that Job was a man filled with many fears. And eventually, he drew to himself those things which he worried about on almost a daily basis.

     If God or the universe brought evil into the world lives, then it would contradict and negate all of the many verses which tell us that God is love, that there is no darkness or evil in him/her. If it were the case that the universe brought us both blessing and cursing, it would be more like living under the dictates of a cosmic schizophrenic rather than a divine love that is beyond our comprehension. So the next time you are challenged in life, ask yourself, is God doing this to me? Is the universe punishing me? Or did I make a bad decision, or perhaps is this just a life circumstance that I have to work through with patients, faith and logic. To think that the higher forces of the universe are waiting in the wings to run us through adds more complication and fear to life. And besides all that, it is just not true. Would you do such things to your children, family and friends? Chances are, you would not! Now think about this; if you are a finite human being with that much compassion and mercy, would not God's compassion and mercy be even greater? Are we greater and wiser that the Infinite Intelligence of the Universe? Of course not... Let this logic be your guide.