Do you avoid pain and suffering and setbacks and run from them whenever you can? Yet do you look for deep meaning and unifying purpose in life when you are having fun, going to parties, and have plenty of money? You could, but most people don’t. it is easy to be superficial when things are going your way, but there are gifts available when they are not if you are willing to receive them. Don’t waste your sorrows, for they serve an essential purpose in your spiritual development. You need a container for life that is big enough and strong enough to hold even pain, sorrow, and death. Don’t waste these opportunities for growth. 

[I'm leaving town for a few days - DC]

My word teaches you to confess your faults to one another, so that you may be healed. Do you find this difficult to do? When you work up your courage to do it, are you more likely to be relieved or filled with regret that you did it? Do you think that you are the only one who stands to benefit from this encounter? What about the person to whom you confess your faults? Have you ever been on the receiving end of a confession? This too is an opportunity for growth in empathy and compassion, to minister wisdom, and to examine yourself. Have you already found that there is a special bond that forms between friends that have shared at this level of depth?

My word teaches you to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. Yet it is commonly accepted conventional wisdom, by believer and unbeliever alike, that no one is perfect. Do you find it frustrating that you have been given a command you cannot carry out? Ancient mariners would steer their ships by the stars. Do you think that they found it frustrating that they would steer their ship by a star with the knowledge that they would never get to it? Of course not. In like manner the Magi followed my star and it led them to me rather than to the star. If you follow me you will end up where you belong and that is all I ask of you. 

Have you ever acknowledged the benevolence of divine providence? For some people this is a shorthand reference for God. This is true, because I make the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the just and on the unjust. I provide blessings for everyone. Yet this term implies a distance and lack of intimacy. You get the blessings of divine providence automatically, but I said this is life eternal, that you may know the one true God, that you may know as you are known. This is more direct and intentional, and can only be done by direct contact, not from afar. This is the relationship of life I offer you.