Wednesday, June 17, 2015

An Answer to Life’s Biggest Questions

HUMMING beneath the seemingly real needs of life are needs realer than any of our day to day concerns. Deeper than we even think, there is a sameness in our soul that is hardly ever heard, and may never be; a voice that cries silently amidst the throes of the noisy vexations of life. A person’s spirituality is something that remains untapped, unscaled, unresolved and unreconciled. And even if we do seek to tap into it, and mount an ascent to scale those walls within our spirit, and seek to resolve and reconcile what we may not know even ails us, we will fail. We will fail more often than bears consideration. But the answer to life’s biggest questions lies secluded in the very same place. And despite failing many times, God rewards the persistent.
We would otherwise shrink into a despairing depression. But that misses the point entirely. Such a thing is a complete waste of time and energy.
We are better placing our energies where the hope of a reward remains. We might as well embark. Perhaps less energies are required when we journey in truth than remain wedged against God in a lie.
A key truth is this: no human being can know the mysteries of God, and yet, we are better by far to trust in the goodness of God — without ever knowing the answers to the deeper questions of life.
What I’m saying is the answer to the biggest questions of life is, we don’t know and we will never know this side of eternity. Indeed, the biggest questions of life — like, why would a good God allow suffering? — are actually irrelevant, if we consider all our efforts to understand are destined to fail. What is relevant is to transcend these questions altogether and just accept the mystery cannot be answered in a way that is acceptable to a vast majority of us. The point is, when we get over these barriers to belief, then, and only then, are we effective for actually helping those who are suffering. Only then may we have the scope to explore the only relevant big questions that exist; those deep inside each of us as we come to be aware through reflection.
Why, otherwise, do we waste our time demanding answers from a mystery? Such a thing is maddening. No spiritually sane person would engage in such a perishing enigma. No logical person would, either — when they come face to face with the inexplicable. It is better to just empathise.
Because we decide to leave the things of God the way they are, we are free and enabled to make the changes in life that we can; the only changes necessary.
***
An answer to the biggest questions of life is easy — our biggest questions of life are not, in fact, actually the biggest questions.
The biggest questions are those buried so deep inside us, personally, we must mine for them as precious ore. These questions are not external to us, but internal.
An answer to the biggest questions of our lives remains to be revealed. It requires a search, an openness, and a passion for reflective investigation. God will not hold back on making us aware.
There is reward for our effort, and a big part of the work is surrender.
God will give us this key to our inner being, but we must first let go of our rage that insists on answers to infernally eternal conundrums.
If we expect that God will reveal answers to the world’s biggest questions we will forever be disappointed. These questions are existential perplexities. It is wisdom to accept what cannot be changed in order to invoke the courage to change what we can.
© 2015 Steve Wickham. 

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