Summary

This article discusses the role of suffering and contrast in helping us appreciate the value of good things in life.

Abstract

The article begins with a quote from the Urantia Book about the "pitiless doom" of life. It then goes on to argue that despite the prevalence of suffering, life has a purpose. However, to see that purpose, we need to understand human nature, which is inherently limited. Physical, mental, and spiritual limitations make us blind to higher realities. Just as our physical vision requires contrast to see, our intellectual, moral, and spiritual "vision" requires contrast to function well. Suffering provides this contrast, highlighting the beauty of pleasure. Without suffering, we would have no idea how good "merely OK" is. The article concludes by arguing that everything in life serves a purpose, even suffering.

Opinions

The article suggests that life is full of terrible opposites, but that this is a good thing.
The article argues that suffering, in its infinite forms, provides great value by providing contrast that highlights the beauty of pleasure.
The

Our lives are full of terrible opposites

And that’s a good thing

Sometimes it feels like life is suffering, tragedy even, and that’s just its natural state.

It’s so commonplace as to be a cliché. And it would be if it didn’t hurt so much. But somedays it just feels pointless, purposeless, empty.

Each day of life slowly and surely tightens the grasp of a pitiless doom which a hostile and relentless universe of matter has decreed shall be the crowning insult to everything in human desire which is beautiful, noble, lofty, and good. — Urantia Book, 102:0.1 (1118.1)

No wonder nihilists arrive at their conclusions.

However . . .

. . . such is not humanity’s end and eternal destiny . . . — Urantia Book, 102:0.2 (1118.2)

Despite what it may seem, despite what it looks like at first — and some days it looks dark indeed — there is a purpose to it.

To see that purpose though, we need to better understand human nature.

The inherent limits of vision

There’s no question we are limited creatures. Despite what we want, we have all kinds of limitations in just about every domain of our being: physical, mental, spiritual. Not only are those limits built-in, but we accumulate them as we age! When did I start moaning when I get into a car?

You could say we’re blind even, especially to the higher realities of the world, of life. We have a hard time choosing between options, or even seeing the options when there isn’t anything to contrast or highlight the differences.

Our physical vision needs contrast, light and dark, to see. And so too does our intellectual, moral and spiritual “vision” need contrast in order to function well.

When it comes to physical vision, if all we see lies in the same level of darkness, or everything is the same brilliance of light, we just can’t tell what’s out there. It all looks like a dark fog or a brilliant snowstorm.

We need difference so our perceiving mechanisms can detect and navigate life.

The value the dark offers

Suffering, in its infinite forms, gives us great value. What? How can this possibly be?!

It’s the contrast that highlights the beauty of pleasure.

If you have felt physical pain (and who hasn’t?) you know what immense relief the absence of that pain can bring. But without that experience, you’ve no idea how good being merely OK is.

The relief from physical pain holds true for other kinds of painful suffering: the emotional pain of missing a loved one, the intellectual pain of failing at an important endeavor, the moral pain of choosing an action — perhaps in a fit of heightened emotion— that directly opposes your moral compass.

A wise man I know once told me, “I don’t need anything incredible to happen in order to have a good day. I just need nothing bad to happen.”

Age and experience of the inevitable suffering of life showed him the value of good things, even something as ordinary as a boring day.

Evil highlights the value of the good

In life, there are crooked sticks and straight sticks. But can how can you know the difference? How can you choose what’s best? By comparing the sticks.

Lay them side-by-side and see.

And thank god for the crooked sticks (our mistaken decisions) — and the ditches they put us in — because they show us the truth and the goodness of the straight sticks.

Is courage — strength of character — desirable? Then must humanity be reared in an environment which necessitates grappling with hardships and reacting to disappointments. — Urantia Book, pg. 51 (3:5.6 (51.5))

Everything serves a purpose in this world, even suffering.

If that feels like cold comfort, you’re not wrong. It is. It’s cold as a steel anvil.

But that deadly-reliable steel can serve you in your journey. With it, you can forge the tools that help you make your way back toward the light.

And that light is your origin, and your destiny, no matter the vale of experience we all walk through down here.

Here’s a tribute to Jessey Anthony. She’s got a beautiful article about finding your authentic self, and the immense value that is inside of you. She writes about the emotional journey of giving up your pre-conceived ideas of what you should be. That emotional work is so important because in that journey it’s the heaviest weight you’ll lift.