Sorrows and Suffering

The Lord teaches us by sorrow and wounds us only to heal and that affliction, far from being an enigmatic and harrowing anomaly, is the very assurance of God’s loving care for His creatures.” Paul reiterates this in The Letter to the Romans: “Suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope.”The Dalai Lama echoes it too for our times: The person who experiences more hardships stands more firmly in the face of problems than one who’s faced none. Seen from this angle, some suffering can be a good lesson for life!
“God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other”.What if a Gandhi thought that it was no use squeaking against thunder when he was thrown out of a whites-only train compartment? Or if Mandela decided not to languish in jail for 27 years and let the system as it existed in his country continue gracefully because some things were historically unalterable? Chances are, their acceptance of prevailing conditions — with or without the luxury of serenity — could have meant India not gaining independence and South Africa still under apartheid rule.That small, still voice inside that we believe balances our entire ethical fulcrum is actually no guarantee of some given innate wisdom we possess.Of course, it works but never without faith and a whole lot of nurturing.