Lack of Communication
A person who ignores God's messages creates a lack of communication with the Almighty. God's loving hand tries to direct a mule-headed individual on the right path...
A person who ignores God’s messages creates a lack of communication with the Almighty. God’s loving hand tries to direct a mule-headed individual on the right path – for his or her own good – but the mule head stubbornly insists on taking a different road, a detrimental one. God is forced to send all types of obstacles – human or otherwise – that stop, block, hinder, pinch, kick, or slap the mule-head in order to prevent him or her from wasting their lives or causing damage to themselves. Usually the mule-heads continue to ignore the Almighty’s messages, adding more bitterness and frustration to their lives, oftentimes driving themselves – with their own two hands – to pills and to psychiatrists.
Even more alarming, the mule-head fails to understand why he or she lives a life of so much pain and bitterness. Those who squander their days trying to satisfy physical appetites — while ignoring God’s commandments — can expect a fate of misery and hard knocks. Why? A human driven by lust and bodily desires is inferior to an animal. Such people lack the spiritual refinement required to discern the delicate signals from God that say, “My son or daughter, you’re walking down a dangerous path!” When people ignore the delicate signals, God is forced to catch their attention with louder and much more severe signals. In short, when they don’t hear the gentle whisper, they risk getting a police or ambulance siren.
Even religious people that learn Torah and observe its commandments can still suffer from a lack of communication with God, by ignoring God’s subtle messages and by stubbornly “doing their own thing” – what they want to do and when they want to do it. When anyone -– religious or not — ignores God’s messages, their lives most likely will become unbearable, since they’ve likely been pursuing a path that’s not their mission in life.
King David teaches us to seek God’s guidance, when he pleads (Tehillim 25:5), “Lead me in Your truth,” Your truth, and not mine, for only You, God, know what’s best for me. He also prays (ibid.73:24), “May You guide me in Your counsel,” Your counsel, God, and not the counsel of my limited human brain.
A Reason for Living
Without emuna, without faith, what’s life all about? If mortals are destined to die, then their entire lives of strain, suffering, effort, and aspirations are rendered meaningless. Even if a person succeeds in realizing a dream or a goal, he or she won’t enjoy the fruits of reward for long, because the last stop on the train of life is the graveyard. Most people leave this earth before they’ve accomplished what they set out to do. So, what’s a life full of suffering, trials, and tribulations for?
Take a look around you; as soon as you get past the “mask”, the plastic smiles, and the cosmetic facade that people hide behind, you’ll see that your neighbors, friends, and relatives all have a generous portion of hardship, pain, and/or suffering. Even the enormously successful – the glamorous, the rich, and the famous — live nightmarish lives that often terminate in bankruptcy, broken marriages, substance addiction, and suicide. All the fame and fortune in the world – when devoid of emuna – is none other than a dismal, dead-end path.
Emuna provides a reason for everything on earth. Even more so, emuna is the only effective consolation for the pain and sorrow that we all encounter from time to time. God doesn’t want to torment us, heaven forbid, only to stimulate soul-searching and repentance – teshuva — for our own benefit –- to add meaning to our lives.
With a genuine reason for living, life takes on a whole new dimension of purpose and lasting gratification.
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