Is there a reason for suffering?

Muscles in your body only become stronger when they are worked to their limit. The body notices the work they're doing, and it expects them to need to work even harder, so it routes extra resources to them to get larger and stronger. All this muscle work puts a tremendous stress on your bones, which actually respond by becoming more dense and less resistant to fracture and breaking.

If you stop working your muscles, they become weaker and eventually will atrophy. And they'll probably be replaced by fat that will conveniently mold itself to the shape of your couch. People who routinely make their bodies burn with the satisfying struggle and pain of rigorous exercise will ultimately be stronger, have more energy, and have more confidence. Those who avoid all that discomfort and effort will generally become softer in more than just their midsection. The same analogy can be used for the brain – either constantly stretch the wits of your mind by reading and learning and creating, or turn on Super Nanny every day and let your brain turn to oatmeal.

Look at people who are handed everything their entire lives, like those who are born into vast wealth, or even children who are never disciplined by their parents and get whatever they whine for. They're generally pretty miserable people to be around. They could have anything they want right this moment, but they wouldn't appreciate any of it, because they've never had to work for anything. They've never experienced struggle as the means of achieving a goal.

When you begin life as an infant, you've never experienced any trials or struggles, and you are completely vulnerable. That's called innocence. As you get older, if you live a life completely without suffering and tribulation, without risk and venture, and if you in fact avoid these things deliberately, you remain vulnerable. That's called lethargy.

The pain of life is inevitable. Apparently the Bible even asserts this fact plainly in its text in a few instances. If Jesus was some kumbaya-singing hippie as so often believed, he wouldn't have said "In this world, you will have trouble." I think the point is that God is NOT there to help you avoid pain. He is there to guide you through the unavoidable pain of life so that you can overcome it and become stronger. When people are undergoing a hardship, they pray that God will make the problem go away. And when the problem remains, or actually grows in ferocity, people get pissed and wonder what kind of a crappy God would let that happen. I think they have it backward, because I don't think that's his job. I think his job is to make us stronger so that we can conquer the problem on our own.

Because out of struggle always comes opportunity. Even if it's just an opportunity to learn. The agony of childbirth can sometimes be fatal, but it is the only path to a new and precious life. The heartbreak of losing a loved one will strike each and every one of us, probably many times over. But what we can learn from that pain is to cherish every second with those whom you love. Life is hard because it's supposed to be. Only when you've endured hardship can you truly appreciate rest. Only when you overcome life's difficulties can you truly experience happiness.

God makes bad things happen, too

Every day, all over the world, the most incredibly spiritual, inspirational people who are true believers of Christ and His infinite love are maimed or killed in horrible and tragic ways, probably with a fair amount of suffering and agony involved. Their bodies are broken and their families are rocked to the core by that person's incredible suffering and, now, absence.

And every day, all over the world, the most wretched and selfishly wicked people are pulled from a smashed car just before it explodes, or stumble into vast sums of money. And they live day and day and day – living, breathing, and healthy as they gorge themselves on fried chicken, beat their children, and in general carry out their selfish lives.

I find it interesting that we only attribute the good events in our lives to God's doing. And we feel that believers are especially prone to the smiling grace of God's good fortune. A very good friend of mine lives in an upstairs condo, and the condo downstairs caught on fire one night and nearly burned completely. But my friend's condo was completely unharmed. We were all of course very grateful that neither she nor her home were consumed in a fire, and many people thanked God for sparing her so graciously.

And maybe they were justified. Thanks God for keeping this friend in our lives and not putting her through the misery of recovering from a destroyed home. But what about the people below? I don't think anyone was harmed, but their home was just about destroyed. Didn't God have a hand in that as well, since it's all his divine plan? Shouldn't we literally thank him for carrying out his plan in his infinite wisdom, even though it involved burning someone's home and putting them out on the street? Someone even used this event as a metaphor, saying that it's amazing how God saves his believers from hell even when it is lapping at their heels. But of course it's very possible the poor owners of the pile of ash below loved Jesus with all their hearts.

And this event is tame compared to others that happen all day long. Many people die in fires, or car crashes, or from cancer. Some people fall in love. Other people win the lottery. Lots of people lose their jobs, or their legs. Some are devout believers, some are atheists, some are newborn babies, some are elderly folks about on their deathbeds anyway.

If God has a plan for all of us, then we must acknowledge him for both beauty and ugliness. I'll bet anything that Jesus is not a kumbaya-singing hippie who thinks everything is wonderful all of the time. Love can be very elegant, or very harsh. And so can life. And so can God.

The seen and the unseen

I was at a real estate meeting last week, and at each meeting there's a guest speaker.  At this meeting the speaker was a hypno-therapist, and she talked a lot about how the human mind works.  It was all alluding to how your mind can affect the outcome of everything in your life, including your career, and she was trying to teach us how to put our minds in a positive position to help conquer the challenging and volatile field of real estate.  It got kind of involved, but in a nutshell, our mind is divided into two parts: the conscious, which makes up about 10% of our mind, and the subconscious, which occupies a whopping 90% of our mind. All our waking thoughts and actions, everything that we do voluntarily and perceive immediately in our world happens in our conscious mind.  However there is an overwhelming majority of our being that comes from a part of our mind that we are almost completely unaware of – the subconscious mind.  This vast, unseen sea is the true source of who we are.  Our entire lifetime of experiences and emotions are collected in the subconscious, and every decision we make on a conscious level must first filter through and surface from that deep and endless ocean. It is completely hidden from our waking lives, yet we are totally bound to its will.

When I think about spirituality, I think an analogy can be made.  The physical, tangible world that we live in – the hair growing on top of your head, the burrito you ate for lunch, the money in your bank account, the atmosphere that surrounds our planet – all exist in a physical, logical world.  You can measure, quantify and logically prove everything.  But I feel like there is another part of us that exists beyond anything tangible; a part of us that goes so much deeper than the physical world is able to reach.

Your skin and your muscles tell your brain that you're being hugged, but your soul is that part that feels the warmth of an embrace and cherishes it in a way that cannot be measured.

Two people can stand in front of each other, push air through their vocal chords, causing them to vibrate at different frequencies, and move their lips and tongue in a way to make lots of sounds that the brain perceives as language. But only your soul will experience the fellowship and joy of a deep conversation with a good friend.

Many long strings of metal can be stretched over a hollow piece of wood, and they can be caused to vibrate at a certain rate that will generate a succession of different sound waves that vibrate our eardrums and are perceived as sound. But a guitar in the right hands can create music that only our soul can hear, and it can be enough to bring someone to their knees, make a whole room of people jump up and dance, or cause someone to cry for the memory of a lost loved one.

Inside these vessels of bone, muscle, fluids, skin, and general pile of meat that make up our physical body, there is a living soul that is the true essence of our being.  Both parts are very much alive.  But one of those will die forever.  Our heart will stop beating one day. We will stop breathing. Our flesh will become cold, and our body will die.  But the part that is our mind, our spirit, our soul, I think that part goes on to another life.

I think there are many people who live their entire lives within the 10% of their minds that is their conscious mind, the 10% of the world that is tangible.  They think that's all there is to it – whatever I can see and prove, that's the end of the universe, there is no meaning for anything beyond that.  But I think they're ignoring the 90% that is unseen with their physical eyes, yet is secretly driving every decision they make.  The 90% that holds true love, compassion, beauty, and faith.  It's the food you eat that "will never spoil", it's the water you drink that will "become a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  I think in this part of the universe is where God would live – a place that we can't see with our eyes, but we can feel with our soul. We exist in both places at once, and it is up to us to acknowledge and cherish both of them in their own right.

Miraculous signs and wonders

Jesus seems to have defied the laws of physics in many instances during his lifetime. It seems he was trying to show people that he was not just an ordinary human, but was actually God living as a human being. And of course for people to believe him, he had to perform all sorts of supernatural parlor tricks, like turning water into wine at that wedding or walking on water in front of all his disciples. He also of course raises Lazarus from the dead, and then I guess raises himself from the dead, which again has him demonstrating his ability to manipulate matter and the sciences to prove he's not just an ordinary human.

It seems the author of John grew tired of describing these amazing phenomena that defy all rules of science that we currently know, because he eventually just lumps them all together with the exact phrase "miraculous signs and wonders". Maybe John was on a deadline, maybe he was late for a date with Mary Magdalene, who knows. But that phrase is all we get to see for some time. I'm decently far into the book of Acts, and the use of that phrase persists.

Now in Acts, the disciples are doing their thing and trying to continue Jesus' teachings, and suddenly they are empowered with the same supernatural abilities of manipulating physics, because they are said to perform many "miraculous signs and wonders", which apparently include healing many sick/lame/blind/whatever people. Even some random guy named Stephen wanders around, performing plenty of "miraculous signs and wonders" for people. Now it can be said that the disciples and this dude Stephen were empowered by the holy spirit, doing Jesus' work, and therefore anything's possible.

In general, plenty of crazy stuff happens to the people of biblical times. Folks see angels, hear God's voice booming at them. Seas are parted, bushes spontaneously combust and speak to people.

Now my question is this – what happened to all the supernatural abilities and events? There are millions of people all over the world doing the work of Jesus, being driven by the holy spirit, but not a single one of them can perform science-defying miracles like Jesus or his disciples did. I think even the word "miracle" has been stretched to include anything beautiful and great. I mean you could say that it is a miracle of God when a group of people come together in fellowship, love each other, feed the hungry, conquer evil, and other such wonderful things. Some people say every sunset or every newborn baby is a miracle. And yes those are very beautiful things, but they are all regular, explainable events. Nobody else has ever done a true miracle that clearly cannot be explained by science. And I don't wanna hear about Jesus appearing on someone's grilled cheese sandwich or such nonsense. No amputee has suddenly grown legs and walked again. No blind man has had his eyes touched by a priest and suddenly been able to see. No oceans have been parted. No angels have appeared to anyone, had a conversation with them, given them instructions to do something, and that person not ended up in a mental institution.

And of course Jesus says, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." And I know he's trying to say that we're supposed to have faith without the blatant proof, but why did the biblical people get so many freakin' miracles and we just don't?

Was Jesus a bleeding heart liberal?

Jesus seemed to be all about loving everybody. Especially those who didn't deserve love, or didn't get love from anyone else – such as the poor, the sick, the lame, the unfortunate. You never hear of Jesus walking up to some wealthy king and granting him mountains of gold. But rather he'll go to the cripple that society has cast aside and make him walk again. Or he'll go to the hoards of hungry people and miraculously feed them all. And he constantly asked people to give up their worldly possessions and follow him for a greater good.

It's funny, because in today's society there are people who argue on behalf of the struggling masses that can't argue for themselves, people who try to heal the sick and feed the hungry on a massive scale, people who say "Hey America, please don't pass that law, think about all the poor people that's going to hurt." These people are allegedly doing things pretty similar to what Jesus was doing, yet are called "bleeding heart liberals", and usually in a very derogatory manner. And usually the ones doing the calling are people of an alleged conservative nature, are generally pretty well-off financially, and who say they are followers of Jesus.

I think Jesus could be considered the first bleeding heart liberal. He thought nothing but helping other people. He very often said something to the effect of "you will know my people because they love one another". And to top it off, isn't it a standard characteristic in the images of Jesus to show his heart with something like barbed wire or thorns around it, and blood coming out of it? So he quite literally had a bleeding heart in the name of love for people. And I guess we shouldn't forget the part where he actually died. That's a bit more of a sacrifice than us having taxes raised a tad so that poor blind people have an extra meal or two and don't starve to death. So why all the name-calling? Wouldn't everyone who claims to be a Christian be more than willing to give up their possessions to help others? Having a wealthy Christian call someone a bleeding heart liberal because they are standing up for the rights of the poor and the broken just seems a little backward to me. If you are a wealthy Christian, please feel free to enlighten me with a comment.

Gotta get back in time

It is widely popular to believe that, if time travel were possible, the timeline can be altered and it would affect all future events.  Perhaps you accidentally travel back to 1955 and make out with your hot mother, hence preventing her from marrying your doofus of a father and giving birth to you. However there is a paradox here: if your mother never gives birth to you, you never exist to go back in time. And if you never went back in time, your mother marries your father and gives birth to you, and then you go back in time and stop them, and the loop continues forever. Whoops, you just destroyed the whole universe. Nice going, Marty.

However I agree with a theory called monotemporalism: that time only has one line and cannot ever be changed. It exists forever in each direction, past and future. To address the despair of those who fear the grasp of fate: even though the timeline ahead of us is already written, we're the ones writing it with our own choices and decisions.  In essence, if you go back to 1955, no matter what you or your wacky old scientist friend accidentally do, your mother will still marry your father and you will still be born, so don't worry about it. Just get back in the Delorean and get your ass back to good old 1985 and listen to some Huey Lewis and the News.

Kurt Vonnegut wrote in Slaughterhouse 5 that we as humans can only travel forward through time at a constant rate. He compares it to being in a railcar on railroad tracks, moving very slowly through a landscape. And we can only look sideways at the things passing by at that very moment. We can't look behind us – everything we know about the past is strictly from memory or record. And of course we can't look forward down the railroad tracks, we can only guess and hypothesize about the landscape to come.

The way people describe God to me, it seems that he is a timeless being, in that he isn't bound to the timeline like we are. It seems that he would be able to see every moment in time whenever he wanted. It's like God created a great book about the universe, but only the foundations of the book – the cover, the pages, the binding – not the story itself. People have free will and we make our own choices. So we are the ones actually writing the story. Now because it's possible for God to flip ahead a few pages and see what will happen next (or no doubt just read the entire book cover to cover), he already knows how the story ends. But we are ultimately still the ones who make the decisions and write the story every day.

Gluttony, without the horrible fatty fat fat side effects!

I would like to introduce the concept of my newest invention, the Esophageal Food Teleporter™. It's simple really. As described in the illustration:

"As the user eats whatever their bounding heart desires, the food reaches the first teleporter in the upper esophagus. It teleports all food out of the body, never to be digested.

Just above the stomach is a second teleporter, which teleports directly into the stomach: purreed vegetables, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that the body needs to function perfectly."

This way, we can eat whatever our secretly gluttonous heart desires at all hours of the day. Finally, a time will come when humans can consume themselves in gorging and lethargy without suffering from such severe conditions as type 2 diabetes, tank ass, turkey neck, and jello arm.  Our bodies will never have to endure the consequences of the fat, cholesterol, lard, high fructose corn syrup, maraschino cherries, and beer batter that would eventually choke us to death in a permanent, gurgling fat-suit of bacon grease and hot fudge.

Imagine a wonderful world in which people are left to indulge in their deepest insatiable gluttony with absolutely no negative consequences whatsoever! A world in which every person can take and take and take as much as they want, without having to pay any of it back, forever avoiding any negative effects of any of their actions.

Are pleasures meaningless if there are no limits to their consumption? Are consequences worthless if they can be avoided indefinitely? Would it throw our being completely out of whack to have an endless continuum of yummy sinful delights without any of the consequences?

Having said all that, it occurred to me that the only pleasure I can possibly think of that has no consequences whatsoever – that we can indulge in endlessly and actually become better people because of it – is love.  Love for each other, love for ourselves, and love for the world that we live in.  It would be nice to be in a place where such love truly was endless and available wherever and whenever we wanted.  And was available to us whether we were aware of it or not, whether we wanted it or not, or whether we deserved it or not.  Hmm... where could I find such a thing?