When I was a child, our chicken used to peck on the back door every day until she was let in. She walked across the room to a shelf with a box on the second shelf, jumped into the box and sat down. After a short time, she would begin to cackle and jumped out of the box, and went back to the door where she was let out. She cackled at the pain of laying an egg -- a new creation.
The caterpillar has to die in order for a beautiful butterfly to be born out of it. The butterfly has freedom of flight and therefore is so much more than the caterpillar. In all of life, this change doesn't happen easily; death must ensue in order for the new creature to emerge. The process is painful, requires suffering, and patience. It is out of suffering that true creation happens. The greater the creation, the more the suffering that attends it. As the mythical Phoenix is born in the ashes of death, all that is beautiful, wonderful, and great is marked by a birth of suffering.
Atoms
Matter is created amid tremendous forces. The atom is created out of many particles, becoming matter, and displacing thousands of times its original size. If the nucleus of a hydrogen atom were the size of a marble, the entire atom would be the size of a football stadium! This displacement releases tremendous amounts of energy that can be seen millions of light-years away. All of this energy could be the cries of birth.
Art
The most beautiful music was created out of suffering. Mozart suffered a great deal to bring forth much of his music, as did Beethoven, who never even heard his 9th Symphony, Ode to Joy! Many artists suffered to leave their beauty; Vincent Van Gogh suffered for his paintings, as did many other "starving artists." All of creation is pained by a new creation -- the greater the creation, the more the suffering.
Man
The extremes of emotion are contained as children are born into the world. "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world." (John 16:21)
I have attended the delivery of many babies, all brought into the world amidst suffering. When she delivered our third child without anesthesia, my wife said, "I can't believe anyone can feel that much pain and not pass out!" Also, when a baby is born intact, whole, and beautiful it is a joyful thing, however when it is born dead, it is most sad.
Re-birth
Our spiritual birth also happens in pain. Jesus Christ suffered the pains of all men so we can be "born again." Baptism is symbolic of His suffering, dying and being buried, and coming out of the water into a new life. When we follow Him, Our own lives are fraught with pain and suffering. Baptism only symbolizes our birth into the family of God. What we call "life" is really the process of birth!Our life on Earth is brief. We think in terms of years, but in the Eternal scheme it is like the snap of your fingers. During this time we go through a change, like the butterfly, we start with a spirit body and morph into a physical being perfected and changed, and so much more powerful than our previous self. We are in the cocoon now. Change is happening. It's uncomfortable, painful, and hard. There is a great deal of suffering. Life really is suffering, as the change is taking place!
Pain-free
Those who only consider this Earthly life as their entire existence believe that there should be no suffering. Everyone should have everything they want, and nobody should feel pain. We institute governments with this in mind. The governments re-distribute goods and services so everyone has access to everything. Pain medications are given freely. Drugs to dull the senses are taken or prescribed for every ill as if nobody should feel pain or suffer at all.The saying, "No pain, No gain!" is true, but we can also suffer a lot and not gain from it. I have a woman who at the age of 26 is in the nursing home. She got sick and began to have pain and just wanted the pain to go away. She was given medications that help a little, but she is unable to function. She came to rehab to try to get it under control so she could function, but she would not tolerate even a little pain. I offered her the option of freedom, but she wouldn't Now she lays in bed all day, every day, in pain, getting up to six injections per day. She suffers, but gets nothing from it -- for the moment.
The reality is that we need to feel the pain in order to have a mighty change of heart. It is essential that everyone have a broken heart in order to die and be buried, then to live again in newness of life, being born again, leaving the old man behind and walking in the Spirit. Without being willing to suffer our own death and pain, we can never make such a change.
Courage
The ability to allow, accept, and embrace suffering is called courage. It is one thing to go through life ignorant, oblivious to the consequences of our choices, but quite another to know what we are doing. M. Scott Peck, MD writes about this in his book The Road Less Traveled, noting that a general might make very different decisions if he knew and loved each member of the battalion he was sending into battle. Knowledge requires courage. Love contains the courage to act in spite of pain. A woman choosing to have a second child is an act of courage. Getting married after the death of a spouse can be courageous. Getting up every time we fall requires more and more courage.The greatest courage was demonstrated by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He knew that He would suffer, though he didn't have to for himself. He was in the Garden of Gethsemane when He knelt down and prayed, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Matthew 26:39) He was willing to suffer for all innocently in order for us to be born, and saved from the ultimate death.
Born dead
In spite of all He did, some do not choose to come out of the cocoon into life. Some go through the entire birth process, but are born dead. They have not chosen life, and therefore inherit death. Each death is attended by sorrow and sadness. God weeps over those who are lost, as witnessed by Enoch, "And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the [wicked] people, and he wept... "Wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?" (Moses 7:28, 37) Those who aren't born into Eternal Life, are born into damnation, or death. They aren't living, they don't grow up, they don't become more than they are, they don't progress. Like a woman suffering in labor and delivery only to have a child born dead, God suffers on both ends -- preparing the way for life, and the loss of those who choose not to be with Him.The end of suffering
Though we pass through sorrow during out metamorphosis from a spirit being to a powerful god, there is an end to this when we are resurrected into our permanent bodies. Those who are resurrected into damnation will, by the grace of our Lord, have an end to suffering. They may live in Heaven and be free of pain and suffering, doing what they are told, praising their God forever. Those who avoid suffering also avoid happiness.
Lehi explained the concept of damnation: "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so... righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility." (2 Nephi 2:11) A life without suffering is damnation, and damnation is eternal suffering.
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