Something that is a bit uncomfortable to acknowledge, but is also very empowering, is that God and Satan seem to be incahoots at times. Looking back to the Old Testament, for example, God and Satan discuss Job’s righteousness. God is very pleased with Job, and when He and Satan disagree on the motivation for Job’s upright character, God grants Satan the power to essentially wreak havoc on Job’s life. He experiences extreme hardships and we (along with God and Satan) watch to see if Job will stay faithful to God during hard times or if he will break. Looking forward in the New Testament, we can see something similar in Mark Chapter 1.
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “you are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.”
Mark 1:9-13
As with Job, who God is pleased with and who God allows Satan to test, we see something similar being done with Jesus himself. God is pleased with Jesus and the Holy Spirit immediately sends him out into the wilderness with Satan. But why on earth is this happening?
This reminds me of something I once heard Oprah say during her Super Soul Podcast. She joked that she’s very careful about praying for patience, because when she does so, God doesn’t answer her prayers by magically poofing patience into her soul, but her prayers are answered by God giving her practical practice. This means that her patience is tested after praying for patience. She is put into situations where she can practice using and building up the patience she prayed for, thus strengthening the skill. What good is praying for patience if you never get a chance to put it into practice? The fact of the matter is, patience is useless if you never get to use it. To be an expert in anything, we must be pushed to the limits in whatever field we are trying to master. In this case, Satan provides the absolute limit for every form of temptation and is a fantastic training ground for Jesus.
Looking at Jesus, God is very pleased with His Son. God wants His Son to be righteous, not only for Jesus’ own sake, but also as an example to the rest of humanity about the potential goodness we have within us. So how would God go about allowing His Son to practice, develop, and refine his righteousness? He would send him to the best teacher around: Satan. How could Jesus ever practice overcoming temptation if he were never tempted? How could he ever teach others how to overcome temptation if he had never felt the luring pull of temptation himself? Jesus was never supposed to cave into the temptations Satan dangled around, but he was definitely supposed to learn from the experience and grow in his resolution to stay true to God the Father during his time in a human body. This was the best way for him to refine overcoming the difficulties of his human experience and it was the best way for him to develop humility and empathy for all of humanity who struggle and suffer with so many things before his eyes.
Looking at our own lives, we tend to struggle very much with the idea of our own suffering. Struggling and suffering are usually considered “bad” and they often make us irritable and even irate. But we seem to simply have taken on a very wrong and sad attitude towards suffering. It is clear that God sanctions many forms of suffering, and if we have faith in God, it is imperative that we change the way we view suffering. Suffering is not an arbitrary punishment, it is an opportunity given to us by the hand of God to grow, learn, and better ourselves.
Perhaps we lose a job. This is an extremely stressful situation and one that breaks many people. We need to widen the focus. This could be a sign that our unique potential is being squandered in this line of work. Maybe a better job is going to open up that will make us much happier, but we wouldn’t have noticed the opportunity without having lost the original job. Perhaps we are being shown the beauty within the outpouring of love and support we receive from family and friends during hard times. Perhaps we are being shown something entirely different. The point is, we can dwell on the hardship or we can try to realize that there is an opportunity waiting for us, if we only open our eyes and hearts.
Another practical example of suffering comes if you have children who are terrible sleepers. Every night when you get up for the 6,000th time, you can get angry, or you can use the opportunity to practice patience. Every time you wake up, you will have a choice on how you respond to the situation. Patience, as we said, doesn’t get magically placed into your heart. Similar to gaining muscle, it takes pain, consistency, and a lot of hard work. Every time you treat your child with love and empathy instead of with anger and detachment, you’ve grown in a very beautiful way. It’s simply a choice of whether or not you want to let God help you grow, or if you want to resist.
Jesus says in Matthew 21:22 that, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayers.” But let’s remember that we have to do our part too. We have to believe in the opportunities that are given to us, regardless of whether on the surface they look good or bad. We have to continue to believe in the overall goodness of God, even when we are in the thick of it. We are not being arbitrarily punished, or arbitrarily tested to see how much pain we can withstand. Every time we suffer, we are being taught how to grow and merge with God, for our own sake and for the sake of those around us. We are being taught to let go of our egos that cling to “things” instead of spirit. The more peaceful and loving we become, the more that loving power radiates to those we come into contact with. Jesus shows us through his own example that good things often come with a great deal of pain. Jesus accepted massive amounts of pain on the cross and transformed it into something good, and all of us benefit from that. Let’s remember to follow Jesus’ example, even when it’s not comfortable.
INFLUENCED BY:
The Book of Joy: The Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams
Leave a Reply