ELEMENTS OF STRUGGLE

There are three elements to struggle, each of which is designed to draw you closer to your true self. The first element presumes that you desire to have an intimate knowledge of who you are and what you were meant to accomplish on this earth. The second element enables you to create a paradigm within which to discover who you are and what you were meant to accomplish. The third element sheds the parts of you that would prevent the knowing of who you are and the accomplishment of your purpose for being on the earth. 

Purposeful living always entails struggle. When you live deliberately with an internal focus on accomplishing your purpose, you have to be prepared for struggle. The only life that does not entail struggle is one that flows in the direction of the wind and the waves, going wherever they lead. If your life follows every thought and every emotion, and brings it to fruition without even a glance inward at who you are and your purpose for being on the earth, it is a life that is free of struggle; and it is likely being lived without purpose. 

Genuine struggle is not primarily about physical and material need, although it may at times involve a degree of deprivation and need. It is more profoundly aligned with who you are in relationship to God and to the universe in which you live. It is about finding your purpose. Just as every can of soup comes in a can, so every God-ordained soul arrives on this earth with a purpose. A soul without a purpose is an oxymoron because the name itself implies purpose. 

The soul's purpose generally is intertwined with the earth's purpose to cleanse and redeem the universe. The earth was created for the purpose of devising a methodology by which evil forces might be subdued. Evil forces have a negative and destructive effect. Some might argue that evil does not exist except in ways of thinking that are colored by our culture and our circumstances. However, God knows that evil is real. It is the dynamic force that pulls the earth, and indeed the entire universe, toward chaos and confusion. When the earth has been cleansed and redeemed, the universe will then have a paradigm for cleansing and redemption.

Embracing the spiritual struggle entailed in the discovery of the soul's purpose is an absolute necessity for every member of society. A society's greatest accomplishments derive from those who bravely seek and live their true purpose.