You cannot understand suffering, how it can be, how I can allow it. It would seem that you are surrounded with it. Certainly, the news is full of it. As much as you are opposed to suffering, certainly, it seems to be very popular. I do not advocate suffering. I would not have you suffer. At the present, in order for Me to take away all suffering, I would have to take away all free choice, and that I am not willing to do.
You have free will. You can choose to love or choose to inflict suffering. You can choose to love or choose to take suffering to heart more than you do love. I would not have one finger of your hand suffer, not one hair on your head, certainly not one beat of your heart. I suppose man chose suffering to supplant joy, perhaps to eradicate joy, as though joy were a commodity to be given in little quantities or to be withheld altogether. Denial of joy is tantamount to suffering. Suffering accomplishes nothing but more of itself. It is self-propagating and neglectful of anything but itself.
One in joy would not contribute to the suffering of another. One in joy would alleviate it. One in joy would not even think of suffering, would know that it is better to shrug his shoulders than to suffer, would know that one ounce of joy is better than ten pounds of anti-suffering. Perish the thought of suffering.
If you are as sincere as you seem to be about the abolition of suffering, why then does it still exist in this world that man hath wrought?
I would not want you to take suffering as a provocation against joy. I would not want you to go on strike against joy because of suffering. Rather than protest suffering, express joy. Add some to the world. Be a hero even in a world that promulgates suffering. Despite suffering, make joy. Reveal it.
Do not consider that this would be a lie. Joy is Truth, and suffering is not. I know that suffering hurts. I also know that joy blesses, so choose to bless. Even amidst suffering, choose to bless. Take your mind off suffering and onto joy. If the world of man can invent and procreate suffering, surely it can close it down. Choose to be a dealer in joy, supplier and user. Both ways, you serve the universe. Wrest joy. Attend to that which gives you joy. Be so intimate with joy that you cannot even think of anything else.
Be a joy-monger.
Gossip about joy rather than woe.
Let joy be the iron that removes wrinkles. Suffering is a wrinkle, beloveds. It is a wrinkle on the face of the Earth. Suffering is a despot that has bullied his way in and taken away the rights and privileges of the masses. Surmount this despot. Make joy like cut-outs of confetti. No matter how little the pieces of joy, they are still joy. Have your thoughts be concerned with joy, not with the apparent absence of joy, not with suffering, but with bubbling joy itself. There is no substitute for joy, no imitation. Nothing replaces it, and there is nothing like it.
Multiply joy. Think about it. Talk about it. Only joy is the antidote to suffering. And it is free, beloveds. It is free. There is enough available. You need not stand in line for it. Just invite it in now. Move over, and make room for joy to enter your heart and stay there and never leave.