suffering

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What is Long-Suffering?

There are many teachings which say we are meant to learn long-suffering as much as to develop kindness, compassion, love, mercy, oneness, etc. Many of us intellectually shy away from this with great energy.  There is a perspective that long-suffering is the choosing of suffering, when instead we could choose to not suffer.  The idea of not suffering is a very popular one.  As human beings, we know suffering all too well, as we’ve all gone through it and all been witness to it.

And yet, …

we are meant to learn long-suffering, so, as humans, we do learn it and mostly learn it without realizing it is also a part of being alive. Here are some experiences in which we have learned it.

1. Long-suffering is seeing someone cause suffering to another person/persons, and our wanting to but being unable to stop it.

2. Long-suffering is the awareness of the suffering of people in faraway lands, with us not having the ability to change it except in seemingly small ways from so far away.

3. Long-suffering is seeing people and other lives in need, but not being able to help them except through prayer.

4. Long-suffering is knowing people, like ourselves, going through horrors which we know could be ourselves on any other day.

5. Long-suffering is caring about another person, but not being able to save them from themselves or the path of pain they choose.

6. Long-suffering is loving a child, and not able to completely protect them from the world’s dangers or the world’s horrors.

7. Long-suffering is loving a parent and not able to stop their body or their brain from breaking down and losing themselves during a very long, slow process of disappearing.

8. Long-suffering is doing the best we can, and still it’s not good enough for those who criticize and judge.

9. Long-suffering is knowing the path of pain which we have walked, but still being judged so easily by those who don’t know our life.

10. Long-suffering is dying on a cross and some of our last prayers being for help for others in “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

11. Long-suffering is offering a beautiful, wonderful, healing, joy-filled, loving Sacred Truth to others but it being rejected with mocking and contempt.

12. Long-suffering is when we offer real water to someone dying of thirst, and they reject it choosing instead their familiarity to dying of thirst.

13. Long-suffering is knowing all we have to offer some people is love, but they would have none of it.

14. Long-suffering is having received regular prejudice, hatred, violence, injustice, harm and worse because of who and what we are, yet knowing that others who are like us in some way (color, race, religion, gender, etc) – even those we love with all our hearts – could receive the same prejudice, hatred, violence, pain, suffering and/or horrors that we have received and we can’t protect them from it.

15. Long Suffering is believing in God, but knowing that innocence, unselfishness and goodness, as within Christ, will not stop others whose agenda is for themselves only and them to hate, harm or even kill people.

16. Long suffering is realizing deep inside that the horrors of the world don’t just happen to “other people” and not ourselves. The horrors of the world can and many times do happen also to ourselves and those we love.

17. Long suffering is only experienced by those people who choose to experience oneness with life, who see life eye-to-eye equal with others, who seek to let others know they are not alone, who seek to help heal all life.

Part of long-suffering is realizing there’s little we can do to change others’ immediate sorrow and pain – sometimes nothing that is quick and responsive. But, as we pray, which calls for us to be patient and endure the suffering, along with others who may feel hopelessness, we can pray, choosing the faith which, with our prayers, comes healing and change.

We experience long-suffering, because we are human beings, we care, we love, and we keep on keeping on, even with pain in our hearts and tears in our eyes.  We believe that healing can come and so we endure.  We rarely choose “learning long suffering”.  But, we find we experience it as part of living, loving and being loved.

This, and more, is long-suffering.

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Holding On For Hope

Many versions of Christ’s crucifixion exist in many forms to tell the story. One thing that is in all the versions is the torture and suffering inflicted upon Him throughout the many hours He was taken into custody. I won’t go through all the levels of suffering, but rather that He chose to walk the path which led to this. He knew long before this time that this is why He came into this world, also. He willingly went through this.

While gathering somewhere else and His followers giving up hope for a world where Jesus led them, Christ walked this entire road to this end – stumbling, blood, sweat, acceptance, pain, nails, the cross, even to the sword through His side and His last words, “It is done.” and His death. As a human being, He experienced every moment of these things.

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” In these words, He speaks of seeing past the material world, past earthly actions and behaviors, and past the cause of His death. In Him was the hope that comes with seeing past the physical world to that which is beyond our own ability to see. His sight was capable of seeing His life continuing in the way that was Truth of who He was and who we are.  Hence how He could ask for their/our forgiveness.

Like His followers, there are so many times and situations where we feel our own loss of hope. Despair, discouragement, sorrow, grief for things lost or never gained, suffering – each of these are things we know and experience. We don’t see what He sees, but we are challenged to look beyond the material experiences – look beyond our material circumstances and our physical situations.

When we find ourselves in these experiences – experiences leading to our lost hope, it is these times – which we all go through – when we are little children, in pain, lost in the dark, and very scared – children in adult bodies still thinking we are adults. “Suffer the little children to come unto me” is His statement to our “adult belief” to let the hurt, lost and scared child self come to Him. Then we can reach up as children must do, to His waist and wrap our arms around Him, holding on with all our strength.

It is these moments with His arms reaching down to us bringing us in, that He gives His most to us – His most love, His most caring, His most comfort, His most acceptance, His most everything – when we let ourselves “come unto Him”.

There are things which He knows, and sometimes we get to learn if we work at it. One of these things is hope. We are all still learning. And as we hold onto His waist with our child-strength, He lets us know, “Remember, I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

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“If we have loving kindness in our hearts, patience in our hearts, humor in our hearts, compassion, mercy and forgiveness in our hearts, and more, then Jesus knows us by name, because then, Christ is in our hearts. ” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2014, Jodie Senkyrik)

“God has hope, because God knows of possibilities for success far beyond our own awareness, knowledge and understanding.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2009-2018, Jodie Senkyrik)

“God enjoys saying, “Good try. Keep going, don’t give up, let’s try again.” ” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2009-2018, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Las Vegas Horror

Spiritual law exists and is fulfilled. This is immutable, but it can vary as to the many methods it can be fulfilled. The spiritual law I’m referring to here in this example is – “The experiences we give others are the experiences we give ourselves.” This means that those experiences we put others through will be the experiences we put ourselves through (not always by choice). This is law, commonly called karma, but can also be known as the law of creation.

The vast majority of fulfilling events for this law are not manifested all in one particular lifetime, but rather in other lives we’ve lived or will live. In fact, looking only at one lifetime very few spiritual laws and principles appear to be true. Looking at the same laws and principles in the context of each soul living many lives, things start to make sense.

With the horror that happened in Las Vegas, we can see great suffering happen to many people. Even more people suffer from learning about this event afar – via TV or the News and the like. As sorrowful as it is to say this, these events too are fulfillment of law.

No, the people as they lived their lives this time around did not deserve this. No one ever deserves this. But, these things are bound by law to happen. And the soul from whom these things come – great woe, suffering and pain is theirs and sometimes for thousands of years both in physical form and outside of physical form.

The Bible tells us through various wordings, roughly, “everything we’ve ever done to harm or cause suffering, we must clean up.” Every i must be dotted and every t must be crossed. This means that every experience we’ve ever created for someone else to experience, either we will experience or we must heal and dissolve. Every ripple in time we create, will return to us. This is the fulfillment of the creation of experiences which exist within an Infinite Consciousness – of which all of us are a part.

Yet, this law is not in place to punish. This law has no judgement of any soul, even though we may project judgment into it. This law exists to help us raise our vibrations to the vibration of Infinite Love.

You see, these events like the killings in Las Vegas, can be healed, resolved, dissolved, and dismissed long before they ever happen. The purpose of all things is to raise our vibration to the level of Infinite Love. The simple truth is that we can raise our vibration to the levels at which these horrific events can be removed from having to manifest.

The how is as we’ve mentioned many times before – through those acts that raise the vibrations in the Earth – prayer, meditation, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, long-suffering, patience, charity, kindness, Love, and the other fruits of the spirit.

Any event, both horrific or wonderful, has its own vibration. The vibrations of prayer and meditation, love, kindness, forgiveness, mercy, patience, etc., are a higher vibration than these destructive and harmful events. Higher vibrations have a greater power than lower vibrations and can greatly impact energy that otherwise is destined to manifest as suffering – like the event in Las Vegas.

Our prayers, our meditations, our efforts to bring forth the fruits of the spirit from within our own hearts and onward into the Earth, are the ways to heal souls and heal the energy of our past created experiences which are still waiting to find the appropriate channel to manifest.

These acts can be healed through prayer and meditation – for humankind. But, without prayer and meditation, these acts will manifest. As I’ve said before, the more prayer, the more healing. The more meditation, kindness, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, understanding, patience, support, charity, long-suffering, cooperation, tolerance and love – the more healing.

If we look for proof that this law is possible and in effect, we will find none that is suitable. No physical proof exists of a non-physical reality. The physical reality is the reflection of the non-physical reality. No reflection ever offers any substance of that which it reflects. No part of a reflection in any mirror has physical substance of that which is reflected.

Yet, we live each day with the choice to pray, to love, to show mercy and compassion towards others for their own sake, knowing inside our very soul that these things are worthwhile, and are needed in a weary, weary world in order to bring that world out of the manifestation of those destructive acts which we created lifetimes ago, yet haven’t yet healed.

We can heal events like the one in Las Vegas, before it happens.  We have already done so much healing.  Events destined to manifest, have been dissolved and healed.  We need only keep on keeping on with this work.

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Prejudice of Ages

How silly humanity in general has been with so many years of prejudice against people involved in interracial marriages, same sex marriages, cross-cultural marriages, mixed political marriages, this or that marriage, and on and on and on.

Unlearning prejudice found in any human experience or human arena is a slow process.  The prejudices come from learned fears, from desire to fit in, from the desire to be loved and approved from those who are supposed to love us, and from our own past life experiences with different races and subcultures – whether those past experiences are cooperative or combative.

Many, many, many, many times, the prejudice and hatred comes from past life connections where there are still grudges and resentments towards a particular group or people.  Acts like “raids on groups”, raiding, pillaging and killing in wars, make for many prejudices.  All races and groups have been targeted at some time in some way, and many different groups have been slaves or bought and sold. Sometimes, in human history all that was required to be enslaved was to be defeated in battle.

Many groups have been perceived as second class, lower class, or lower caste, and these experiences sometimes are hard to go through.  Still others use these experiences to justify their vendetas, grudges or resentments or even to build new ones.

So, it will take time for prejudice to heal.  Since it can come from very real damage and harm done to each other in the past.  And each person will have to resolve it in their own time within their own heart, mind and soul.  Do you think?  This is also a contributing factor in the Middle Eastern conflicts and in the attack of 9-11.

What is interesting is that there is no one on this planet that has NOT experienced being on the receiving end of prejudice.  Everyone has, whether based on race, religion, gender, financial situation, spiritual belief, disability, weight, physical features, ethnicity, sexual preference, sometimes their job, etc.  And I say this regardless of whether we may see how that possibly could be true “for that other person over there who looks way better off than I am.” (Having this thought is a symptom of prejudice.)

I can go into a room of any number of people and show you how each person has been singled out in at least 3 different ways, just by being who they are.  Women, men, black, white, brown, red, Hispanic, Asian, European, Native American, Christians, Jews, Muslims, tall, short, small, large – no group has been free from being on the receiving end of hatred, disrespect, fear, attack, ridicule, different types of abuse and the like because of their group – even psychics.  Yes, there are groups that have predominately received recent prejudice, but all groups of peoples and different subcultures have received it at some time in the past, and even now in the present.

Prejudice has been the source of much human pain and suffering.  Pain and suffering is something that no human ever escapes.  Jesus Christ didn’t escape pain and suffering then or now, and Robin Williams didn’t escape pain and suffering, either.  Pray for all who suffer – whether on this side of the veil or the other.  When we are in pain and suffering, we tend to strike out at whomever we think is the cause.  This is the birth of prejudice.  Pray for all who are in pain.

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“God does not create barriers to love.  Not even death is a barrier to love.  Love can move back and forth through the veil of death.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2020, Jodie Senkyrik)

“Whenever Love is present, God is present.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2020, Jodie Senkyrik)

“Even as we are reading this, God is completely aware of us (and aware that we are reading this) – observing with infinite love, kindness and patience.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2020, Jodie Senkyrik)