“Without fail, you will be tested,” said the wise man. We believe that how you respond to your spiritual tests in life determines how you progress spiritually, and it impacts your future personal fate.
Whether or not you’re successful with these tests depends on if you do the right thing and respond with unconditional love, tolerance, and honesty.
But let’s face it, you have most likely experienced a situation where you’ve been tested spiritually and failed miserably. Relax, you’re not alone, but the sooner you begin to deal constructively with your tests, the sooner you’ll balance your karma.
Below we list five common circumstances that may not always seem like a spiritual test failure, but we believe are.
1. After having your car serviced you realize that you’ve been ripped off; they didn’t fix the problem. In order for you to remedy the problem, you have to deal with the manager of the dealership, and you already know it will be difficult to deal with that person based on prior experience. Though you may not realize it at the time, this is a test for you to harden your resolve and stand up for what you believe in. Instead, you opt for conflict avoidance and take your car elsewhere to be serviced.
2. Both of you cheat in your relationship and are fully aware of it, yet pretend it doesn’t happen, while simultaneously promoting your new book on the importance of life-long monogamy. Instead of conceding that your relationship is finished on a sexual level, you lie and carry on like it isn’t. While you could do a lot of good for future generations, empowering them to realize that strict monogamy isn’t realistic for everyone or in all situations and that it’s acceptable to have alternative arrangements if everyone agrees to them, you take the easy way out.
3. Two individuals on the fringe of your social circle are burdened with nasty rumors about their integrity. You happen to find out the truth, that indeed those two people are innocent. Suddenly, an opportunity is thrust upon you to clarify the situation at a party one night, but you simply keep your mouth shut while they suffer.
4. You still can’t believe how your ex treated you, and you’ve vowed to never forgive that person, ever. The problem is that you’re only hurting yourself and that by holding a grudge, you’re inviting future scenarios where you’ll be forced to learn about forgiveness in love relationships, time and time again, until you finally get it right.
5. It’s like the universe is conspiring to push you into solitude, but you refuse to go along with it because you can’t stand to be alone for even 30 minutes. You do everything you can to surround yourself with warm bodies, including taking yoga and dance classes, joining clubs, and living with multiple roommates in a large house. Though you succeed in almost never being alone, you fail to do the inner work that comes naturally in solitude, thus continue to delay your spiritual progress.
In what way are you taking the easy way out and avoiding real, spiritual progress? Meditate on that. Also, go easy on yourself, but strive to constructively and honestly deal with life tests as they appear at your doorstep so you can avoid a dreaded do-over in the future.
Copyright © Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo