Sat Nam Dear Family,

God is a "carrot and stick" kind of God, balanced through compassion along the way. He supports you, and protects you. He provides for you, and He forgives you. Most of all, He loves you so much that he knows how much you experience it. God has beautiful carrots.

On the other hand, there is a minimum God requires for his favor. The cost is gratitude. If, or when, gratitude wanes, God’s favor wanes accordingly, until God’s favor appears to turn into punishment.

How can that be? I thought we worship a benevolent God. A God who only does good things. That’s true, but it’s how you define ‘good things’ that becomes the operative phrase.

For instance, what if God sees you losing ground. He wants to help, but how? He’s given you everything you’ve wanted, many, many carrots. Still, you’re not satisfied, not grateful. What to do? Well, what if God’s answer is to take another approach. A radical approach filled with pain and compassion at the same time.

His new approach appears as punishment, but there’s always another view, another story. What if God does this to wake up one of His beloved ones who thinks life offers more than God does. Yes, most people think like this. Maya is a sensuous lover.

This approach can seem a bit harsh for a benevolent God, but, then again, it depends upon how ‘benevolent’ is defined. What if God sees pain as the remedy. Loss of God’s grace is so painful that, eventually, everyone becomes grateful for its return. The time this takes is subject to many, many variables, but the journey begins with gratitude.

Seeing God’s stick through different eyes offers a perspective which is so loving God is even willing to suffer the wrath of misunderstanding to wake someone up. He’ll suffer all the abuse just in the possibility that his stick will create change, change in His direction.

So, God’s stick could also be seen as the great blessing of applying more and more pressure, pain, unpleasantness, so that His beloved one will say, “enough is enough. I surrender to whatever it takes to get rid of pain once and for all.” That would be a wonderful thing, therefore, God did another wonderful thing even if it's hard to see at the time. But, that doesn’t change the fact that God’s help, God’s opportunities, are often overlooked or misinterpreted. Nevertheless, God keeps-up plugging away. God is always helping, whether you can see it or not. So, please, look for it. That way it’s easier to find.

When it’s found, gratitude becomes a must. It would be rude, ill-mannered, and ungrateful, not to be grateful for God’s help. It’s ALL under His command. Stay tuned,

Your Friend,

Hari Jiwan