| In Life we come across problems. And do not worry, I will not branch off on another tangent on how we are not spiritual enough. You can read all about how our generation is not religiously healthy on our front page. It is in many ways redundant for me to say that in life we come across problems because anyone who has lived a day in the real world, knows that even on a daily basis, we come across problems. As a society, and as a culture, people try to solve these problems in various ways. Nevertheless, a quick glance at the world over will reveal that a good amount of these solutions fail. Now you may look at me (in or this case the screen) and say, how are you going to solve something we fail at? We as humans are very proud creatures. We come across a problem and our first reaction is "Oh we can handle this, we don't need any help." An example of this is someone who refuses charity. Under most conditions, when everything is going well for us we want to solve our own problems, and we will focus our intelligence, our logic, and our creativity into solving a problem. And sometimes it works, sometimes we accomplish a solution to a very basic problem. But in large scale cases such as wars and mass murders, we seem to stumble a bit more, but we still insist on trying to solve any problem that comes our way. And so getting to the point quickly, the reason all our solutions in all our their intelligence and splendor is that we are trying to solve the problem. You know who's fault it is you fail: It's your fault! WE fail because we are trying to solve our own problems. But you know who we should be asking to solve our problems. God, we should be asking God to solve our problems. And I'm not saying that we should neglect a problem in the blind faith. When a child is dying of coarse, we should do all in our power to save the life, and when there is an inconvenient war, wars do not wait for any entity to think sensibly and solve them. But If we try on our own, of our own intelligence and logic(both of which we have little) then we fail to solve our problems. So the point is, that instead of being proud beings, and trying on our own to accomplish a task humans inevitably fail at doing, we should focus a good deal on becoming spiritual individuals and allowing God to inspire us in ways which will solve our problems the correct way. God's solutions do not fail. If we say use a condom to prevent STDs God says "Hey I have a better solution, don't screw around!" You see how that works? God's solutions make a lot more sense than the best of human invention because they actually solve the root of a problem and not just the undesirable outcome. We try to solve our conflicts with wars and physical force, but God simply says "Stop hating each other." There is no conflict if we stop hating one another. As humans we try to avoid the root of a problem, so we will invent all kinds of ways to get around the root of a problem because se don't want to deal with it. But in short God's solutions are much more logical, much more sensible, and by far more intelligent than our own mediocre solutions. So far you may be thinking: "Great! God can solve my problems better than I ever could, all I need is for him to actually talk to me." You see, a problem arises in receiving God's excellent guidance. We know that he has great guidance, but how are we to gain access to it. In the days when God took up physical residence on earth and dwelled in the Tabernacle and later the Temple, usually God's message was conveyed via a prophet. Difficult questions were settled by the Kohen Gadol, or High Priest using the urim and thummim (mystic stones with which God somehow made his opinions clear). And in these days when God spoke through prophets (not to say that he doesn't today) it seems that his message was generally received easier than it is today. However in this day and age (what year are we in anyway? 2007?) it seems that no matter how hard we pray, no matter how hard we strain to hear the whisper that we expect to hear during prayer, we often come away with no applicable results from our prayers. Also, many a "prophet" have spoken in our time and almost every time, we find that in the long run the messages of these people are beautified fecal matter. It is so discouraging hen you are struggling with life's plentitude of difficulties, and through it all God doesn't seem to be there. But I want you to know, that even though we don't have the major prophets of the past, and although God's place of residence is no longer in the holy temple, we still have his perpetual words and advice. The answer to all of your problems is sitting on a dusty shelf somewhere in time and space. You know one of the things I love about the religion Sikhism is that when it came time for the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, to be succeeded by the next Guru, Guru Gobind Singh did not seek out a human to replace him, but he passed the authority of the Gurus to the Guru Granth Sahib (the compiled Sikh Scripture). Therefore Sikhs turn to their sacred text for guidance. We as Christians don't always think of things in this manner, and we forget (or neglect) that even though we do not have the prophets any more, God has passed the authority of the prophets to the perpetual prophet, and entity more commonly known as the Bible. God's answers are all over the world in almost every language, in every applicable form of media. So why are there still so many problems in the world? We have the superior help we need, why don't we use it? Often the answers to life are staring us in the face, but people's heads are either so far up in the clouds, or so far up the place where the sun doesn't shine, that we don't see the simplicity and wisdom of God's kind of advice. And then we come back to that human trait of pride. There are still people who say to themselves "No, No. I can fix my own life. I don't need God's help. I don't need anyone's help!" And this is why we still are plagued by problems that for as smart as we say we are, should not exist. But at this time, you are at a critical point in this spiritual journey you have started. You need to ask yourself the question "Do I have problems?" and be honest. Is your relationship with your parents rockier than it should be? Are you struggling with school and with peers. Are you and your spouse or consort always fighting, and is there a general lack of total love in your many relationships? And you also need to ask yourself the question: "Do I want god's help?" Healing is often ready to occur, but if we are not ready for healing, then healing will not take place. Are you ready to put aside your human trait of pride, and put away everything you thought you knew, and everything you thought you understood about yourself, and allow God's superior words to guide you? No matter how many times you put it off, If you are on a spiritual journey, this question will resurface and keep nagging you until you deal with it. With God's solutions there are no convenient ways of working around the root of a problem. You have to open up and let God in to solve those deeper problems that we so often fail at settling with. If you answered yes that you have problems, and if you are willing to accept sublime words of wisdom, you are ready to advance to the study of the Bible. In life we come across problems, but luckily we don't have to deal with them on our own. |
