It's quite natural for those of faith to turn towards God during difficult times. Even if one has a regular spiritual practice, their practice can increase and improve during times of difficulty. After the events of September 11 for example, churches in New York City had some of their largest attendance in quite some time. Why is it that a lot of us have to come to a point of utter hopelessness and desperation before we call out to God? Why is it that even if one doesn't have faith, one may make a last ditch effort to call out to God as well?
When life is treating us good and all is going well, we often don't feel a need for God in our lives. Our material acquisitions -- money, property, friends and family -- become our crutch. As long as we have these things in place, we feel comfortable and don't have a strong need for a spiritual practice. However, when these things start to fade, we feel a sense of fear and panic come over us.
As a society, we have become so dependent on material things for our happiness that our lives would become completely disrupted without them. When things are on shaky ground, we pray to God to protect what we have. We reach out to God and expect Him to keep things as they are or fix them and make everything all right. God becomes our plumber who's supposed to fix things when they go wrong. This need-based spirituality is all right, but it's a bit superficial.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna (God) lists four basic types of people that turn towards Him. Number one on the list is the "distressed." In case you're wondering, the other three are those that need money, the philosophically inquisitive, and the wise or those who don't want anything from God, except a loving relationship. In the Gita Krishna explains that He welcomes all four types that approach Him, but the one who approaches Him without material motivation is the most dear.
We can tend to use spirituality like medicine or a hospital. We utilize it only when things aren't going right or when we're suffering financially, emotionally or relationally. Our pain and suffering, however, can be a path to transcending this selfish conception of spirituality into something more. It can make us ask the questions we normally wouldn't ask, and can lead us to bigger and broader questions, such "what's really the purpose of life?" and "how can we avoid suffering?"
Unless one starts to ask these questions, one can never truly understand the purpose of life. Even if one does understand philosophically that there's a higher purpose to life, without some suffering, one may not feel the impetus to implement some spiritual practice into their life.
Suffering doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. It can help us grow and mature in ways we can't even imagine. It can give us realizations about life which otherwise would be difficult to acquire. I'm not suggesting we go out and look for suffering. Rest assured, it will find its way into our life.
There's a beautiful verse in the Gita, chapter 2 verse 14:
"...the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons...and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed."
While undergoing a difficulty one may not be able to fully understand how this is supposed to be beneficial. However, as Steve Jobs said in his commencement speech, you can only connect the dots looking back.
The Vedic texts explain that the soul is a part and parcel of the Supreme. It is qualitatively one but quantitatively different from God, like a spark of fire which has similar qualities to the larger fire, but is insignificant in size compared to the actual fire. Because the soul has this eternal connection to God, it has a natural tendency to reach out to God during difficult times. These opportunities provide the soul, which is stuck in a material body, to again reach out to God and rekindle that relationship.
The help will definitely come, but not always in the ways we expect it to. If the soul can remain faithful even if it appears that God isn't sending the help one is asking for, the soul's union with God is almost guaranteed even within this life.
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Can Spirituality Heal Suffering? | Care2 Healthy Living
I've seen what God can do - nothing. He simply doesn't care.
For most of my life I was a non-believer. If you choose to see nothing in nothing, it lead will not lead to much- only a growing frustration.
From my experience, I know that I can not say much here, but I understand where you're coming from. I hope that the pain you feel today will one day empower you to be the change in the other peoples lives!
Would you have rather never know your husband and children? Thereby you would have none of that pain?
More here:
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And the idea that suffering is good to make us mature, how would you explain if a baby is born suffering from some disease and then dies, surely the baby did not die mature. The fact of so much suffering is evidence to me that there cannot be an omnipotent good God. So maybe there is a limited God or gods, who are not even aware of our suffering, or else unable to help us, at least not before we die.
If we choose to recognize and act on our relationship with Him, we feel complete, and when we choose to ignore or deny that connection, we feel incomplete. We get what we ask for.
Suffering is a symptom that something is wrong, so in that light it's an opportunity to look deeper and become open to learn.
Like what you mentioned about a child dying at a young age. According to the Bhagavad-Gita, all living beings are eternal souls. http://vedabase.com/en/bg/2/20
When souls choose to neglect their relationship with God they are "on their own" so to speak by their choice of free will. The laws of Karma award one a particular body to enjoy or suffer the results of our past actions, and those reactions play out at all stages of life.
Looking at life as not having begun at birth nor ending at death is a valuable perspective in understanding how God is omnipotent, in that He is in control of everything but doesn't interfere with our free will. Love requires that we choose to love, it can't be forced. Having a little faith to make that choice might help us find something better than what we've tried so far. So what's not to love?
but you must find out what that is and grow from there....
get rid of judgment of others, get rid of the worrying and live your life in
the present, not the past or future.....
#2 GoogleAlphaYada distinguished altruism as reward-seeking
#3 I didn't consult Webster's to confirm, so great my faith - or gullibility
Yes, generally speaking, when we are happy and fulfilled, we don't seem to seek out god. Why? Because we are at peace.
Individual pain and suffering is the result of desire and ego. Once we come to grips with that and let go of desire and ego, inner peace is the core once again.
*All organized religions* have evolved so far from that simplicity, it's scary.
They have all become nothing more than books of rules, platitudes and How-Tos about "finding God" and what to do "to please him". They have become the leash by which to control societies. How sad...