But more than an infinitely larger life? The sufferings here aren't in vain. They are to force us to focus, if we are willing. Of course if we AREN'T willing....
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They sure seem in vain. And itโs especially tragic to me when it seems those who least deserve these tragedies are the ones who experience them. Iโm sorry, I donโt believe we are going to find common ground in this dialogue. There is prolly some kind of deity, idk. I see no evidence it cares at all.
aug 28, 2025, 2:10 am โข 0 0 โข view
As for โforcing us to focusโ IDK how to do more. I am trying. I canโt make my neighbors care. But the innocent remain in awful positions they donโt deserve even a little bit. A lifetime of misery should not be the price to pay for heaven. Thatโs not fair. It pushes people away from religion too.
aug 28, 2025, 2:13 am โข 0 0 โข view
The idea that we can all have something like โthe patience of Jobโ is a myth. It pushes people away and everyone knows this is a perfectly reasonable response to trauma.
aug 28, 2025, 2:14 am โข 0 0 โข view
All the science about this is worldly centered. Actually read accounts such as in the horrible Nazi camps and heroism abounds. Heroism does not abound where things are easy.
aug 28, 2025, 2:19 am โข 0 0 โข view
I think a lot of the ones who were killed lost faith prior to dying. I canโt find faith and my life is comparatively much better. I just have a strong sense of empathy for the people I try to serve and I know that any heroism seems to not be enough to help. Iโll share one story.
aug 28, 2025, 2:24 am โข 1 0 โข view
We have a domestic violence shelter in my town where the beds are all kind of out in the open in the front part, used when the private rooms are full. About two years apt I was there as a part time staff member and a mom and her daughter were in this โcorralโ space since we were up against capacity.
aug 28, 2025, 2:26 am โข 0 0 โข view
The mom had just been reunited with her daughter after being treated in the hospital for a torn rotator cuff. Her ex boyfriend found her at work and attacked her. She tried to run and he trapped her arm under his and jerked it out of socket, then pulled on her. He twisted he shoulder ligaments.
aug 28, 2025, 2:27 am โข 1 0 โข view
So her arm is in a very elaborate sling to avoid the slightest movement or it would be incredibly painful. Her daughter asked why she got hurt. And sheโs basically trying to say it was nothing, no big deal, so as to avoid telling the kid about what domestic violence is.
aug 28, 2025, 2:29 am โข 1 0 โข view
The girl knew this was a lie, and started saying โwhy are you lying, youโre hurt, lying is a sinโ and the mom broke in that moment. Just BROKE. Falling to the floor crying with her kid in her arms, aghast at being accused of a sin by her own girl.
aug 28, 2025, 2:31 am โข 0 0 โข view
This poor woman, who had never hurt a soul in her life, who had been maimed by a madman, just gotten out of the hospital and it wasnโt enough insult to injury. Now she had to justify herself her kid who thinks she is a sinner.
aug 28, 2025, 2:35 am โข 0 0 โข view
There are some sins that in a vacuum are intended well, and she could have said dear daughter, I lied to try not to hurt you, but now I see it is obvious.
aug 28, 2025, 2:32 am โข 0 0 โข view
Ah, I might be inclined to honesty, that people who pretend to love you sometimes only want you in order to use you. There has to be a whole catalog full of songs testifying to this, in case she thinks it's rare.
aug 28, 2025, 2:30 am โข 0 0 โข view
And now they barely got into the shelter, and it surely is to wonder about those who hadn't been able to.
aug 28, 2025, 2:29 am โข 0 0 โข view
That sounds like an ordeal.
aug 28, 2025, 2:27 am โข 0 0 โข view
Suppose this earthly lifetime is insignificant compared to a greater life in whose investment you have is in proportion to its investment in you on earth. "Pushing people away from religion" is the fault of churches of short cutters. If they won't take the trouble of heaven in them, they're fake.
aug 28, 2025, 2:17 am โข 0 0 โข view
This world is all I know. And I donโt see any effort to help the ones who exist here. Some charities and governments, some churches. But I donโt see any godly assistance in the mix at all. Kids are born with tumors before they could even commit any sins! Thatโs not fair.
aug 28, 2025, 2:20 am โข 0 0 โข view
What we get on earth is always, always insufficient to keep us from dying on earth, even if everything else is nice (and it rarely is completely nice, except perhaps to idiots like Trump who can always console themselves in a perverse inverted superego). Charities can only be finite examples.
aug 28, 2025, 2:23 am โข 0 0 โข view
If you never look to a heaven (which lives in you first before you live in it) then of course you ain't.
aug 28, 2025, 2:12 am โข 0 0 โข view
But, FWIW, it's about meeting the challenge, and the more heaven in you, the better to meet it.
aug 28, 2025, 2:13 am โข 0 0 โข view
The ultimate example was Jesus as incarnate God, who wouldn't have deserved any ill, but bore the burden of humans' evil to the grave and back.
aug 28, 2025, 2:14 am โข 0 0 โข view
I donโt really know what that means. Iโve tried to understand it, but itโs nonsense to me. People are still evil to people who donโt deserve it. So what good did that do if people are still experiencing harm that isnโt a form of justice? To what end other than than for brutality sake?
aug 28, 2025, 2:17 am โข 0 0 โข view
How tf do I โget heaven in meโ when I see no evidence itโs doing anything to help everyone? It just makes no sense.
aug 28, 2025, 2:18 am โข 1 0 โข view
Have you ever tried speaking to heaven as to a person?
aug 28, 2025, 2:19 am โข 0 0 โข view
I used to try to pray. As a kid. I didnโt know if it was supposed to be to โJesusโ or what title to use. But it never seemed anything different than talking to a brick wall. Iโve never heard any thing back or felt any kind of โsignโ coming back.
aug 28, 2025, 2:22 am โข 0 0 โข view
I'm kind of getting that you got some terrible examples in the temples, churches or people you knew who talked about it. If they acted like brick walls to you or others, perhaps they led you to expect a brick wall God.
aug 28, 2025, 2:26 am โข 1 0 โข view