Why life is a struggle

Though most put a good face on things we all regularly,  often quietly - sometimes loudly - experience pain. Everything we do involves struggle – emotionally, mentally, and physically. 

Everything is also running down? Things decay, we get sick, age, and eventually die. 

God’s warning to Adam was the day he rebelled from following God's direction, he would die i.e. by breaking off trust in God, he severed his union and relationship with Him and died spiritually, ultimately leading to physical death. This suggests if Adam and Eve hadn’t eaten from the forbidden tree, they would have lived indefinitely, apparently forever because of access to the tree of life. 

Though death is common – we all die – it is not normal. It is not a part of life as God originally designed it; its an ¹aberration.

Though pain is not supposed to be part of our existence, it is. Everything we do encounters resistance. We always experience thorns and thistles as God warned. We are also in bondage to our emptiness - lacking what we need to be filled. 

The entire world is in bondage as well due to our disconnect. 

So is the creation, at no fault of its own. This is why it is described as eagerly awaiting our complete reunion with God's children and the full expression of our original design to properly and fully cultivate and care for - vs exploit - the earth to the glory of God.

Why does death occur when we are not connected to God? We were created for life because we were created to be in an ongoing relationship with God, who is ²life. We were not designed to operate without Him. To do so is like a child in utero having the umbilical cord cut before the child is born. The child will still experience something of the mother's care and protection -- not unlike we now experience all the benefits of creation. But without the life force of the mom freely flowing to the child, the child will soon die, even in the womb. 

Without being connected to God who is the source of life, love, and all things we ³died spiritually and will eventually die in every other way over time - i.e. at some point - if we don't know him. We will totally disconnect not just from God but from all created things we now use and benefit from. 

God is the central and most vital aspect of who we are. Our being like God - in His image - isn’t simply some esoteric theological concept or theory. It has very practical implications. Our disconnection from God carries over and affects everything else about us emotionally, intellectually, and physically. 

Emotionally we are in a constant state of longing for something more, something missing, resulting in a longing, sometimes an ⁴aching to be filled. In our quietest moments when we are isolated from everyone -- think of solitary confinement or the movie "Cast Away"-- we become aware of how much we are emotionally and spiritually alone and in pain. 

Mentally we grow weary because nothing works long-term. Things always wear down, corrode or break and must be repaired. 

Physically we get sick and eventually die.

We long for love - or significance...a primary way to feel loved; also for rest (peace) from struggle and for boundless energy (power), so we never grow tired. This is why so many emotionally connect with superheroes. We vicariously live out our longings to feel powerful and significant through these characters on the big screen.

Isn’t it interesting how the best movies also have a love interest in them? There is something about us that longs for perfect love. When we see a “happy ever after” scenario played out in a relationship, our hearts are pulled in like a moth to light. This resonates deeply within us all. The most successful movies always have a love story intertwined. We smile inside when we see perfect love found and experienced. We all long, hunger, even ache for perfect love. And that is because we were designed for it. 

-- Longing for Perfect Love -- a poem

God alone moves and fills us

Without God filling, enlivening, and empowering us, we can not do what we are designed to do in the way we were designed to do it. We simply don’t function properly without being “plugged in” to our life source; the life source. 

We were designed to operate fully connected to God without obstruction or interruption. This is not our present experience. Even if we are His beloved children, with the condemnation of our rebellion completely removed, and perfect access to God's infinite love to empower us by His Spirit (of love) indwelling us, we still see and experience His love through a glass darkly because we now operate by faith, not by sight. We are not yet in the immediate, full, and unobscured presence of the God of bottomless love in all His glory.

Even at our best and in ideal circumstances, we struggle. When things go well we have a quiet (or loud) nagging fear they will stop going well. It is the nature of our present condition and the world we live in. As Christ said, "In this world, you will have tribulation/trouble/ pain..." But he also said, "Take heart for I have overcome the world..." which means we can too, and completely will one day in Him. 

We are told one day faith and hope will no longer be necessary, only love, because we will literally and physically be fully in the presence of the fullness of love and life i.e. God Himself. Then there will be no need for faith and hope. The fullness of joy, meaning, and purpose we have sought, believed in, and hoped for all our lives will be right in front of us, in us, and all around us, filling us up and overflowing out of us in praise and wonder. 

But until then, we will not be fully who we were designed to be. We cannot now because we were designed to engage and fully participate in the unfettered, unencumbered presence of God. Until we are completely and totally united with God – glorified -- and in His presence, everything's a struggle – which is why we are promised that one day there will be no more tears or pain. Because Christ overcame sin, pain, and death, if we are in him we too will overcome these. There is a resurrection for us because there was for Christ. If we are his and he is ours, this is our sure hope as His children.

Romans 8:
²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Everything is struggle - a poem

For a further discussion on how God uses evil and pain for our good click here. 
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¹For an additional discussion on why death is an aberration click here.

²God is life because God is love. For several posts on this click here.

³What is the essence of our spirit, our energy, our life? Since we are like God, who is Spirit, we must look to Him and examine what he’s like for the answer. The Spirit of God consists of the vibrant energy and passion (breath) of God within the relationship of love between the Father and Son. So much so we are told God is both Spirit and love. It doesn’t say God merely has these attributes but that he is these. These are the essence of His being. The relationship of the Father and Son is one of passion, joy, delight, love, and adoration the Father has for the Son and the Son for the Father. This is a relationship that recognizes and acknowledges the infinite beauty and worth of the other and the delight they experience in union with each other. 

It is this relationship of adoration, joy, and glory we too were designed to partake in. This is why we long for love, recognition, meaning, a sense of significance, etc. We were created to receive adoration, joy, and glory in and through God and reflect these back to Him, who is the source, in the very same way the Father and Son relect these back and forth to each other. This is the essence of the Life, Spirit and Love of God the Father and Son, but of us as well because we are like God, the most significant of all. We are designed to be in relationship with Him. Without being connected to this relationship of adoration, joy, and glory between the Father and Son, in, by, and through the Spirit, we are now absent these while at the same time still needing them to fully be who we were designed to be. We still need to adore and be adored; to glory in God’s infinite worth and be gloried in it i.e. adored and cherished. We are designed to find infinite joy in God and experience his infinite joy -- Spirit -- in us in the exact same way this occurs between the Father and the Son. This is the never-ending mode we were created for; a state of perpetual, infinite bliss because this is who God is and we are like Him. 

What kind of being is it that never sleeps or grows tired and weary?

Isa 40:25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

What energizes God is the joy, adoration, and glory that flows – via the Spirit – between the Father and Son. This Spirit of joy, adoration, and glory never wanes or stops, therefore neither does God. When we are fully plugged into this God and this life, neither do we nor will we throughout eternity. We will be in a constant and ever-growing state of bliss because God is in a constant state of bliss. 

When God rested on the seventh day from creating, it simply means he finished creation, not because he was tired but because he was done. Everything was completed, finished.

Rev 21:22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb (lamp being the instrument through or by which the light/glory is displayed). 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there (i.e. the Son will always be present).

We simply can’t relate to never being tired. But this is who we were created to be. The fact that God warned that the day man rebelled he would die, tells us death was not part of man’s original design. Growing weary and tired, in constant need of rest is part of the fall. Something within us isn’t quite right. We are always running down, in need of being recharged. We are incomplete, unplugged and disconnected. As a result, we are always in need of being emotionally, mentally and physically recharged. Not unlike what happens with a computer. Every so often they must be shut off so things can reset. 

In eternity, our operating system will be flawless and never in need of being turned off or reset. We will run perfectly because we will be reconnected again with the ultimate and perfect source of life and love. God will be our infinite power supply and He never runs down.

Though we will never grow tired we will continue to be physically strengthened by food. Scripture seems to indicate we will eat not just for enjoyment but nourishment. Food was part of the experience of Adam and Eve before their rebellion. Christ also ate after the resurrection. Though our bodies will be glorified we are still physical and still part of creation i.e. still dependent on sustenance both spiritually – which will be Christ – and physically. 

⁵The true nature of our longing/wanting is obscured and also numbed to a great extent. This is why the scripture describes our being restored to God as having hearts of stone being replaced with hearts of flesh. Stone feels nothing, flesh feels everything. For a further discussion on this and the anatomy of pain click here.