Would anyone in their right mind choose to suffer meaninglessly, or cause themselves pain for no reason? Do we not typically avoid hard work, except in pursuit of a worthy cause? It makes sense that these things, unpleasant and undesireable in themselves, are generally avoided wherever possible, however I think we know, intuitively, that they are somehow necessary. But do we really believe it? What do your actions say? How often do you fall prey to this seductive trap?
Two Deadly Traps:
I’ve noticed two equally deadly traps in life. One is to choose to accept (endure) pain and/or suffering in your life in order to avoid hard work (“Things aren’t that bad. I don’t need to change anything.”). The other is to try to eliminate pain and suffering in your life by working hard (“If I push through my pain now then one day I can relax”). It seems to me these are essentially two sides of exactly the same coin. And, as we’ll see, lead to exactly the same result… i.e. an unbearably hard life full of endless, meaningless hard work, pain, and suffering.
It seems self-evident that while we don’t always need to work hard, sometimes you may have to. It’s those times we cannot afford to avoid. The same is true for pain and suffering.
Working Hard (to avoid pain and suffering)
It’s only natural to want to work to improve our surroundings. However, trying to avoid pain altogether is an endless trap, since no matter how hard we try, some will remain. How much is ‘enough’? Is it possible to avoid all pain and suffering? If we work hard enough?
It’s a little bit like a drug or an addiction. If I work hard enough, I don’t need to feel my pain. Or if Ican ignore it and push through it will be gone eventually (when I achieve success). The problem is that ignoring pain, or more specifically ignoring the problems that cause pain, allows those problems to grow unchecked. And then slowly, day by day, the problem we’re trying to ignore grows and grows and requires more and more work to ignore it.
If I work hard, earn enough money, build enough security, then I can (one day) relax and be happy. Except it’s a lie. It will never be enough. I can never stop. I can never take a break. What was enough yesterday will not be enough for tomorrow. Like a drug that needs you to take more and more, all the while giving you less and less, the already high cost keeps getting higher, and the pay off gets less and less. And if you stop and face reality, the pain will be unbearable, because the lows you now experience whenever you stop have also increased in intensity.
Pretty soon you’ll have both. You’re working unbelievably hard and your pain and suffering is slowly steadily increasing. That is a terrible trap. Equal to any form of Life destroying addiction. Instead of a drug to numb pain and suffering it’s choosing hard work.
Embracing pain and suffering (to avoid hard work)
The converse is also true. Sometimes if you’re in a hole it takes some hard work to get out. If you choose to stay in the hole and don’t work to get yourself out, the pain and suffering slowly increase over time. At first it’s not too bad. It’s easy to say “this is fine, I can live with this. I don’t need to do anything about it.” But like a frog slowly being boiled alive, the amount of pain and suffering increases and so too does the amount of work required to get out of the slowly boiling water.
By the time the pain is unbearable the way out seems impossible. And again the result is the same. Working insanely hard in a desperate attempt to reduce the unbearable pain and suffering.
The End Result is the Same – Is there another way?
So, in some ways it doesn’t matter which of these two paths you choose, the end result is the same.
Is there another way? Yes! When we accept both hard work and pain and suffering (for a Higher cause) then:
1. They don’t multiply
2. The rewards are exponential (instead of the price we pay)
3. Life has meaning because the price we pay, even when it is very high, is for something worthwhile.
What is ‘worthwhile’? (the highest good)
Ultimately this worthwhile thing should be the highest good. The most worthwhile thing, goal, ideal, you can possibly imagine. This is why the first two strategies don’t work. Neither ‘avoiding pain and suffering’ nor ‘avoiding hard work’ come anywhere close to being ‘the highest imaginable good’.
The Sliding Scale (of exponentially compounding returns)
So far I’ve been talking in black and white terms. In reality what we aim for in life falls somewhere in the middle. And the closer your goal is to the highest good you can imagine, the more the rewards of your hard work will be meaningful and self-motivating.
Every time we are lazy, or unambitious comma accepting a lesser good over what we know to be a higher good, we slide further down the slope towards the bottom end described earlier. Endless, meaningless hard work pain and suffering.
And thankfully the converse is also true. Every time we make a choice to accept a difficult path in pursuit of a higher good we nudge ourselves upwards. This is a highly exponential process. With every step forward the next step becomes easier, clearer, more rewarding. With every step backwards the path to redemption feels even more impossible.
“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose Life.” Deut 30:19
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