Planting and Harvesting

Could you explain why we suffer? Could you explain why some suffer more than others?

Photo by Warren Wong on Unsplash

According to the dictionaries, freewill is the possibility to decide, to choose according to one's will, free from any conditioning.

And that is how Divinity - the supreme intelligence of the universe - allows us to conduct our existence. To make decisions in our lives we only depend on our own judgment, on our personal analysis, on confronting our own conscience.

The Divine Providence, in an educational way, provides us with the opportunity for choices. And, for the sake of justice, it offers us, as a learning experience, the full consequences of our actions.

That is how the judge will answer for what he does in the courts. The executive will account for the management of the resources under his responsibility. The public manager will face consequences proportional to the quality of his actions. The teacher will be responsible for the good or bad made during the course of the profession. The employee will be considered for the quality of his actions and conduct.

We are free to make our decisions

We are free to make our decisions. However, once they are executed, we link ourselves to them and become either victims or beneficiaries of them. We may act in any way we believe is appropriate or convenient but we will have to account for everything we do.

Nobody deceives the all-seeing Divine Justice, from the insignificant to the most expressive acts. Erroneous attitudes, even those hidden from men, those that we believe we have managed to circumvent human justice, do not go unnoticed by the Divine Justice. Therefore acting positively, ethically, is a matter of wisdom. All the good that we do, even if silently and anonymously will be counted in our personal accounts.

For this reason, every difficulty that we face now are nothing more than debts of the past. And they reach us now because the Divinity understands that we have the conditions to pay them off. Thanks to this mechanism designed by God - which is always just and correct - we are provided with the chance to repair previous mistakes.

Final Thoughts

Out of kindness and in favor of our balance, the Heavenly Father offers us to forget our criminal past, so that we can better face its consequences. The understanding of Divine Justice, a lucid, reason-based faith twill give us encouragement to continue our journey.

We are heirs of our actions. Nothing that happens to us is due to divine punishment, heavenly revenge, or forgetting the loving and good Father. Our misfortunes are the consequences of not observing the law of love and they are an invitation to reflection and learning, so that love, effectively, establishes itself in our intimacy.

In this light, we will understand pain as a blessing, a cheater of our lives. It will lead us to higher levels of evolution.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on June 13, 2015.

See Also

• The Power of Love
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem

A Thinking Power

Can distinguished personalities recognize the existence of a greater good?

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

One of the greatest geniuses of humanity, Albert Einstein, defined God as:

a Thinking Power acting outside the Universe, without which nothing can be explained. The more we penetrate the secrets of nature, the greater our respect for God becomes.

Like him, several distinguished Nobel Prize personalities affirmed their belief in God. The philosopher Jean Paul Sartre who throughout his career, was a militant atheist, approaching his death, then blind, decrepit, but still in full possession of his faculties, affirmed his belief in God:

I do not feel that I am the product of chance, a speck of dust in the Universe, but someone who was expected, prepared, prefigured. In short, a being that only the Creator could place here, and this idea of ​​a creative hand refers to God.

For its part, the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics, Arthur Compton, commenting on the first verse of the Bible in the Chicago Daily News of April 12, 1936, stated his point of view:

For me, faith begins with the perception of that a Supreme Intelligence brought the Universe into existence and created man.

It is not difficult to have this faith, as it is indisputable that where there is a plan, there is intelligence. An ordered and unfolded Universe testifies to the truth of the most majestic statement ever made: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Most of us live without realizing that the divine Providence exists and watches over us.

Sometimes, however, one fact is enough to wake us up. Scottish physician A. J. Cronin said that an explosion in a coal mine which buried fourteen miners and kept them buried for five days was that fact. When the rescue crew cleared the underground path, they heard a faint melody coming from the bottom of the rubble: Our God, Our Help in Ages Past.

That was what kept those men maintaining their courage. Weak but alive, they would hear the crowd waiting outside sang the same hymn that echoed joyfully through the narrow valley. That great volume of sound enveloped Cronin with an indescribable emotional force, bringing him to tears, for the demonstration of human faith in God. And that was one of the facts that made that doctor come to reconsider his perception about the existence of this Supreme Being, Creator and Lord of the Universe.

Final Thoughts

When the starry nights provide us with ecstasy before your contemplation; when we watch the travel of planets that rotate in space, in their specific orbits, without colliding; when we witness the miracle of life, which is renewed, at each dawn, without reciting itself in the same way, we are led to believe in this Thinking Power, which rules the orchestra of the expanding Universe.

Let us recognize that the heavens proclaim the glory of God, and the firmament announces the work of His hands.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on February 24, 2017.

See Also

• The Power of Love
• Poverty and Wealth
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• Divine Poem

Suicide: a global calamity

Unfortunately, suicide is still a growing trend in our society. Learn how you can help changing that.

Photo by Noah Silliman on Unsplash

The Yellow September was instituted by the World Health Organization (WHO), on September 10th, 2003, as the date for the suicide prevention campaign worldwide. The growing number of occurrences each year has made this a major public health problem.

The causes are diverse but depression continues to be main one. Beyond that, financial stress, illnesses, drugs (legal and illegal), disillusionment with life and, of course, lack of religiosity make this incidence more and more worrying. The suicidal person does not want to stop living, they just want to “get rid” of the problems that affect them.

It's important not to ignore a pre-existing condition in the person's spirit. Most of us still carry some fragility from previous experiences which we all have to learn how to surpass. And unfortunately, this spiritual disease affects particularly those who believe that life ends in the grave. However, our Spirit lives on harvesting all the good (and/or bad) we realize in this life. Let us remember that life is a cycle of challenges and existences that necessary for our evolutionary process.

According to question 944, of The Spirits' Book, To shorten life is the greatest transgression of human beings to the Laws of God:

"Does man have the right to dispose of his life"?
- No; only God assists that right. Voluntary suicide means a violation of this law. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) defined, on January 22, 1998, that “health is a dynamic state of complete physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”, and the Ministry of Health supports the Life Valuation Center (CVV). In 2017, 2 million people called free of charge to the number 188, which offers emotional support and suicide prevention. Imagine how many lives were spared from this folly ...

The numbers continue to increase. There are a total of 800,000 cases per year worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a goal of reducing suicide deaths by 10% by 2020 which will not be easy, since the Covid-19 pandemic has contributed strongly to the growth of depressive processes.

When we believe in the Creator and that only in Him we have the support for our vicissitudes, we feel strengthened. Faith combined with perseverance and resignation leads us to the path of lesser pain, while the revolt it is the door of suffering. To revolt is to aggravate everything that already bothers us and we know that this attitude does not solve anything.

As long as the one does not seek within virtues such as humility, love, charity, fraternity (among many others), they will not leave this situation which imprisons them in despair.

A reunion with your self is the key to the true happiness that each of us has access to.

Conclusion

Let's try to be more aware about our struggles and learn to renounce what hinders our moral progress, such as selfishness, pride and other feelings that we carry with us. 

References

• Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program
• World Health Organization (WHO)

See Also

• Bridge of Life
• The poetry of life
  
• Weighted observation
  
• A Thinking Power