This essay assumes:
1) God exists
2) God Loves
3) Humans are spiritual
One of the things I’ve noticed in recent readings on Near Death Experiences (NDEs) is a consistent reference to humans not just as having a spiritual essence, but that the spiritual being preexists the life in a human body. In addition, I’ve noticed that when the dying person encounters a spiritual being in “Heaven” (and is duly impressed by the power of that spiritual being), it is not unusual for the spiritual being to make some kind of statement like “Those who choose to go to Earth and live as humans are the real heros”.
I have to admit that statement struck me as somewhat odd. Why would that be the case? Humans appear to accomplish little, create problems for themselves and others, fight and die - often ignominiously. We are petty, greedy, hateful - often liars. Hardly sounds like the description of heroism.
To try to understand this, I tried to determine differences that might cause such a distinction in labeling. Besides the distinctions described in the prior essay “Why are we HERE?”, there is at least one other one: Existing as a spiritual being in an environment where answers require only a question and creation requires little effort, all beings would be at the same level of capability (at least by standards that don’t look at position power and other things attributable to groups rather than individuals.).
Moving from that level of capability to the more limited capabilities of physical existence requires giving up a lot. Not only does one give up much of the raw capabilities inherent in all spiritual beings, one gives up the overwhelming Love that comes from the Presence of God.
Further, moving to the physical realm means taking on the risk of failure. Those in Heaven are sinless - those on Earth are not. This means taking on an experience that the bearer must know up front will contain pain in many forms. And has the very real risk that the bearer of that experience may not come through the experience successfully - instead, that person may end up rejecting the God in whose Presence the person formerly dwelled. Why take on that known pain and risk?
It could only be because those who do so perceive that the growth from that experience is worth the risk.
When you think about it, that really is heroic.