God allows us to experience trials for the benefit of ourselves and those touched by our lives. My own recent experience has led me to a greater level of humility and selflessness as I learn to struggle with the anger and resentment of being victimized by someone close. This has, admittedly, been a journey as I first walked through a dark tunnel of anger that on occasions desired retribution. I even found myself attempting to justify my anger by recalling that God becomes angry, yet the truth is that God's anger is not man's anger, for God's anger perfects righteousness (oneness).
I've come to a greater realization that it is primarily selfishness that permits anger to arise in response to a wrong that one has suffered, for if one looks beyond self, one finds that the person who committed the wrong is the one who truly suffers as this willful disregard for the welfare, peace, rights and justice due others reveals an alienation from the oneness of God...it reveals one lost in self. This person is suffering from a blindness that prevents him from seeing the truth of his identity which is found in Christ; it is this unity with Christ and others that places us within the Oneness of God - the kingdom that is now.
We must not respond to selfishness with selfishness, but in our endurance of suffering, seize this opportunity to grow in humility through a denial of self, a denial which leads to love and prayer for those who have wronged us. Pray that they will come to see the truth of who they are, and with this truth, come to live as expressions and reflections of the love of God...in service to others and in transcendence of self.
James advised us to "...count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." One of the things which faith assures us is that the truth of the fullness of who we are isn't confined within the boundaries of the flesh, for our true self is found in Christ and in each other, and all within God. The trials we experience assist us in laying down those illusions of an exalted and separate self, and with it, the anger, resentment and fear that's attached to self concern. For in transcending this anger, one finds a love that glorifies God. It is in our humility, in our denial of self and in our embrace of being least, that we are free to serve God by reflecting his love and concern for all others, without judgment.
Pray that we can be light that helps guide those in darkness to see the wisdom and peace of selfless love. Pray that those in darkness may see the truth of who they are, as part of the whole...a dimension of the Oneness. This is an abandonment of self as modeled by Jesus from the cross, who, even in his suffering, asked "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Pray that the Spirit guides you that you may help them to see and that you may help them to know.