SadhanaOriental Meditation and Christian Prayer
Contemplation in action
ーIn relation with othersー
[12] Do not try to escape from difficulties
Life is full of difficulties. Many difficulties await us. We make mistakes at work, or have an accident, or are hurt by somebody’s word.
While we have endless difficulties, we could stop asking ourselves why we are faced with difficulties, and why difficulties exist in our life.
We all want to escape from difficulties, but in the past, we were never able to solve problems by escaping. Rather, difficulties follow us, if you will. At least, it is for sure that, as we escape from a difficulty, another difficulty emerges.
In our life, we are destined to walk with difficulties such as slump in business, difficulty in rearing a child, poor health, disease, difficulty in relationships with others, and our own faults and shortcomings.
When we escape from difficulties, we experience more inconvenience and a situation becomes more complicated. We do not have to suffer more than necessary, but when we realize that we cannot escape from a difficulty, we need to take courage to accept it calmly.
When we have a clear reason for accepting a difficulty, we can endure it to a considerable extent.
As we endure a difficulty for a while, we sometimes come to be able to reflect on the suffering of Jesus. And we can identify ourselves with Jesus. And we may come to want to help Jesus with his act of redemption.
We try to accept difficulties as they are, and keep accepting them without resisting.
Then, we start having some valuable feeling in our experience.
- We start to see truth in people we relate with.
- We start having hopes and wishes in the deepest part of our heart.
- We feel that our love is tested.
- Through these, we feel that our love is being purified.
When our love is purified, we can feel with joy that we are purified.
When we continue enduring difficulties, we are pushed into the limit. And when we look for a solution or try to move forward in the extreme position (situation), our affectation is eliminated, and the true feeling fills us. Such true feeling brings us closer to God. Our arrogance disappears, and we can dialogue with God in the state of our true being.
In such circumstances, we often come to realize that God kindly takes care of us.
In addition, we can see the light breaking through the thick dark clouds when we are in the middle of a difficulty. Sometimes, we are convinced that the light comes from nowhere else but Christ’s resurrection. No other way would be surer than this in linking us to Christ’s resurrection. It is no longer a resurrection in our mind, but our experience of accepting a difficulty brings us to the true joy of resurrection beyond the difficulty.
It is a waste to think about why there are difficulties. When we understand that they are unavoidable, let’s courageously accept and endure them and wait until they disappear. When we wait in this way, our arrogance disappears. We are purified, and affectation is eliminated. We can find our true self and come closer to God. That is why we can feel God’s kindness and experience the joy of the Resurrection.