- Sep 29, 2016
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I'm posting this on an Orthodox forum, with the intention of getting Orthodox answers, but anyone can post.
Life is pain and suffering. It's a fallen world where we have to work for wages, we work to earn bread from laboring in dust. This world is filled with so many evils and so much tragedy; I know of stories of miscarriages / tragic deaths, natural disasters, genocide, murder, sexual assault, homelessness / poverty, human trafficking, all kinds of disgusting horror.
Further, no matter what we are given, no matter what we do, pain and suffering in some kind is inevitable - usually a horrifying kind. All pleasure leads to pain in some way; it's the tragedy of the world. Our close loved ones will distance themselves at some point in some kind, friendships and families break, they die off, we can feel alone and distant - incapable of expressing how we truly feel to each other, on a day to day basis putting on a facade of how we "feel.", etc. Some of us (most of us in some form) have to deal with some form of idolatry, addiction, periods of despair. We can be isolated from each other because we have different moral standards and hate each other as such.
However, this reality is something I've accepted. I believe we have it for a reason. It allows us to grow as human beings and allows us to know what goodness truly is; what God truly is; gives us the opportunity for true free will and to make our own decisions. It's why Christ is so relatable to me; we know God by bearing our own Cross, by embracing our own suffering.
Despite all of this too, our world is filled with wonderful things. Truly, indescribable wonderful things. The ability to discover purpose in one's life; to feel true, authentic love which is indescribable; from our friends, our family, God. Even the feeling that there are people who care for you at a basic level and want you to live on this Earth is something that's incomparable. To feel like we've grown and overcome obstacles is indescribable. We can observe beauty, and wonder at it; whether it's a renaissance painting; whether it's a religious service, whether it's God's own poetic landscape, whether it's music or poetry, whether it's philosophy and logic, whether it's mathematics and science. Whether it's the indescribable scene of a mother loving her happy or mischevious children.
The idea that one day, one day, most of everything I've described will disappear is something that scares me. One day, I'll be on my death bed - a very old person with either white or no hair who is struggling to move with cold, pale, barren skin, in a likely dark room, staring up at a ceiling, barely being able to move my arms and legs. And then, in an instant, the cold embrace of death ends it all. That's it.
We have hope of Eternal Life, and a Paradise that is beyond description, with no suffering, no pain, no more addictions, no more temptations, no more hatred, no more disconnect between our fellow human beings and false facades.
Or, if we are wrong, nothingness. Oblivion. (Maybe reincarnation).
In a certain sense, even though I have much time left in my life, God-willing nothing tragic happens to me, and such a thought makes me thank God for every breathing second I have, I feel remarkably kind of sad that for eternity, we won't have the same experiences of what we had in terms of the type of growth we have on this Earth or nothing to compare goodness to anymore other than our distant but eternal memories. Our own conceptions of beauty will be different; our own conception of love will be different; our own growth and wisdom and understanding will be different; our emotions and sense of love will be different.
For example, we will no longer have Satan's disgusting lies whispered into our ears and living in our mind like a parasite. But consequently, we will never be able to grow in that same way.
And we will never, never be able to experience these things again in a way we once did. Never.
Does anyone get what I'm saying? Has this question ever crossed anybody else's mind? If you did have this question, how do you deal with it?
Life is pain and suffering. It's a fallen world where we have to work for wages, we work to earn bread from laboring in dust. This world is filled with so many evils and so much tragedy; I know of stories of miscarriages / tragic deaths, natural disasters, genocide, murder, sexual assault, homelessness / poverty, human trafficking, all kinds of disgusting horror.
Further, no matter what we are given, no matter what we do, pain and suffering in some kind is inevitable - usually a horrifying kind. All pleasure leads to pain in some way; it's the tragedy of the world. Our close loved ones will distance themselves at some point in some kind, friendships and families break, they die off, we can feel alone and distant - incapable of expressing how we truly feel to each other, on a day to day basis putting on a facade of how we "feel.", etc. Some of us (most of us in some form) have to deal with some form of idolatry, addiction, periods of despair. We can be isolated from each other because we have different moral standards and hate each other as such.
However, this reality is something I've accepted. I believe we have it for a reason. It allows us to grow as human beings and allows us to know what goodness truly is; what God truly is; gives us the opportunity for true free will and to make our own decisions. It's why Christ is so relatable to me; we know God by bearing our own Cross, by embracing our own suffering.
Despite all of this too, our world is filled with wonderful things. Truly, indescribable wonderful things. The ability to discover purpose in one's life; to feel true, authentic love which is indescribable; from our friends, our family, God. Even the feeling that there are people who care for you at a basic level and want you to live on this Earth is something that's incomparable. To feel like we've grown and overcome obstacles is indescribable. We can observe beauty, and wonder at it; whether it's a renaissance painting; whether it's a religious service, whether it's God's own poetic landscape, whether it's music or poetry, whether it's philosophy and logic, whether it's mathematics and science. Whether it's the indescribable scene of a mother loving her happy or mischevious children.
The idea that one day, one day, most of everything I've described will disappear is something that scares me. One day, I'll be on my death bed - a very old person with either white or no hair who is struggling to move with cold, pale, barren skin, in a likely dark room, staring up at a ceiling, barely being able to move my arms and legs. And then, in an instant, the cold embrace of death ends it all. That's it.
We have hope of Eternal Life, and a Paradise that is beyond description, with no suffering, no pain, no more addictions, no more temptations, no more hatred, no more disconnect between our fellow human beings and false facades.
Or, if we are wrong, nothingness. Oblivion. (Maybe reincarnation).
In a certain sense, even though I have much time left in my life, God-willing nothing tragic happens to me, and such a thought makes me thank God for every breathing second I have, I feel remarkably kind of sad that for eternity, we won't have the same experiences of what we had in terms of the type of growth we have on this Earth or nothing to compare goodness to anymore other than our distant but eternal memories. Our own conceptions of beauty will be different; our own conception of love will be different; our own growth and wisdom and understanding will be different; our emotions and sense of love will be different.
For example, we will no longer have Satan's disgusting lies whispered into our ears and living in our mind like a parasite. But consequently, we will never be able to grow in that same way.
And we will never, never be able to experience these things again in a way we once did. Never.
Does anyone get what I'm saying? Has this question ever crossed anybody else's mind? If you did have this question, how do you deal with it?
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