"The greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally unsolvable. They can never be solved, but only outgrown." Carl Jung
The above quote has something important to say to us, and I have had to hear this message more than once. Like most people, I want to solve the problems. Let's pull out our magic wand and make this problem go away! That is the place of non-disturbance being challenged. There are no solutions available at the same place that created the problems. The problem becomes a Divine encounter to unlearning and undoing. This process is the "outgrowing" spoken of in our quote.
Because most things we perceive as problems usually involve "the other" as the problem, we are entering into a struggle with flesh and blood. The struggle is much deeper than that. Many problems only exist because our beliefs make them a problem. I am uncomfortable, therefore, there is a problem. Actually, it is a Divine truth encounter--like Peter's cock crowing the third time. It is actually good news to us who are struggling with a problem and good news to anyone who is trying to help someone struggling with a problem.
I remember telling someone who came to me for help with a relationship issue that there was not an answer. Some things you just have to get through. In time, the issues become less significant to our personal identity (ego). When we stop struggling, something wonderful happens. The problem dissipates. That which you struggle against you empower. Life on this planet proves that.
Lack of vindication and validation--our neediness/wounds in regards to these things creates the struggle. Prompt resolution is what we want. And often, we hear that if we do not find it there is something wrong with us. Even in our relationship with ourselves, the "other" exists in the form of "this is not fair" or "I do not deserve this." The scriptures give us the truth: The rain falls on the just and the unjust.
It is a journey to outgrow a problem. In that journey, we will be well served if we endeavor to become an observer always seeing what is not on the surface. I think this takes Heaven's anointing to our eyes. We have to give up our rights to ourself. These "rights" push us into reactive living and bondage to our problems.
I wish someone had given me this lesson when I was twenty or thirty! We think because there is a problem that there is something wrong with us. Some people spend a lot of their day speaking words of warfare over physical symptoms and situations. They are fighting against flesh and blood. That is not the problem. Because we have given it so much attention, it grows and gets worse. The words we need to speak over these things are those precious promises that are given for our overcoming. "It is finished" is the truth of what Christ has done for us. The problem, that external thing, is not what needs solving...we are in need of healing wounds and dysfunction.
Like the woman with an issue of blood (and many other stories), there is something for us to do. Her "outgrowing" journey included things like getting over misplaced expectations, investing money in things that did not help, and being cast out of the spiritual camp as unclean. She got a glimpse of Jesus and reached for the hem of His garment. This may mean different things to different people. We see the end of the story and not her journey. She outgrew all the things that did not work. We want the end of story without the journey of unlearning. There are no failures. It is just that we learn one more way that does not work. Often in this unlearning journey we see that what/who we thought was the "problem" on the front end is really not. The problem is all inside us. We can know that we are making progress with the journey of unlearning if we can start seeing those "problems" through eyes of compassion. Somehow, it helps us to be compassionate towards ourselves, too. In our Earth School adventure, we have much time in the University of Unlearning. Embrace the journey!
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