Is existence a perpetual struggle? Is life a war?

A young father once imparted a principle to his little son: "Son, remember this. You don't have to fight to be a man."

Many years after, the now adult son confides to his aging father: "Dad, you were indeed right. One doesn't have to fight to be a man. And as I grew up into adulthood, life also taught me that sometimes you've got to fight when you're a man."

Is it possible to deal with violence without using violence itself?

Creatures all as we are with self-preservation as primary instinct and with a strong tendency for insatiable superiority complex, in the perennial struggle for [whatever form of] domination among all races and peoples of the globe with their different ideologies (beliefs, doctrines, philosophies, and the various forms of "isms"), it makes no difference whether an individual's ideology is extreme or moderate or whether it is theistic or atheistic. Inevitably, people's capacity for tolerance to ideological differences will eventually reach its limit and then conflicts start to build up, and ultimately violence sparks. Violence begets violence, and when this happens, people get caught up in the vicious cycle of violence for violence -- consuming everybody in the process.

It is ironic that resorting to violence (even the so-called justifiable righteous violence) which is supposedly intended as solution against violence could only offer more violence as its guarantee.

Isn't it disappointing and frustrating that resorting to violence only destroys the beast's body but not its soul? You can't bomb an ideology out of existence. Bombs may kill adherents of a certain ideology but bombs are unable to eliminate the ideology itself. Will whiping out all adherents of an ideology off the face of the earth kill that ideology?

What will kill a beast's soul? Who can kill it?
           

Who says you are not rich?

Had it occured to you that, because you are not well off materialy or physically, you perhaps had thought of God as an underachiever? Or perhaps because of so much poverty and sufferings you see that you concluded God does not exist? You might have wondered that if God is almighty, why can't he simply end poverty and suffering in the world? If he really exist, why can't he just bless all people with equal riches, everlasting life, joy & happiness?

Perhaps our lack of full knowledge about God (which perhaps maybe the cause of our negative attitude towards Him) can be likened to the boy's dissapointment with his father in this short-story video. The boy asked his father, "Why are we not rich?" The boy didn't know everything about his father. All the boy thought of about his father is that he is poor and struggling to make ends meet. But the full-of-wisdom answer of the father opened the boy's eyes to the truth about true riches.

Do you know everything about your parent(s)? Do you know everything about God (who is your ultimate parent, your real Father)? Do you know everything He does? Can you fathom His wisdom?

Despite poverty and suffering, God as ever is always truely almighty. Who says you are not rich?! We all are richly blessed by God! He has blessed every person equally with life, intellect and individual capacities -- including our free will and the capacity of our hearts to love and to give. He equipped the world with everything to supply for our every need. Now it is up to us to live according to His way of love that leads to life of all everlasting good things, or go our own way that leads to poverty and suffering.

Most people think that being rich is having plenty of material wealth or great possessions. But according to the scriptures, being truly rich is not about how much you have. Rather, it is about how much you give from the abundance of your heart. Learning to give -- out of love -- of one's own self for others is life's ultimate goal; for to live is to love God and our neighbors. Giving is the true measure of love and it doesn't neccissitate having abundant material possessions but abundance of the heart. In God's kingdom, love is the commerce and giving is its currency. So when we show love to God and to our neighbors through our giving of ourselves (our time, our wealth & possessions, our talents & abilities, our life) for others, we are "actually" laying up treasusers of love in heaven.

[Matthew 6:19-21] Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

You are a gift from God. I am a gift from God. We all are rich gifts from God. Our life is God's gift to us and the world. How we live it is our gift back to God. Gifts are not made for storing but for giving. A gift not given away is meaningless and defeats its purpose. Therefore, through love, as gifts let us give our lives in service to God and to one another.

[Matthew 16:24-25] Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it."

      

In omnibus amare et servire Domino

 

In everything, love and serve the Lord.