This world we find ourselves in--though we may not know the whys and wherefores of it all--is an incredibly dangerous place, with an equally incredibly wide spectrum for suffering and happiness, abject failure or heroic triumph. Some men have succumbed to life and its pressures and become homeless alcoholics; so many in this world live their lives as miserable prostitutes, drug addicts, homeless mentally ill people, criminals in prisons and so on. Likewise others among us soar in life; I think I need not even mention celebrities with hundreds of millions of dollars, fame and fortune; it is enough to simply speak of professionals--doctors, lawyers, merchants, entrepreneurs and so on. Such people have, to speak mildly, a comfortable and easy life.

The stakes are high in this world. On one extreme end, there is hardly a torture that men have imagined lies before the damned in hell that has not in fact been the fate of some man, woman or child here on earth. People are treated with terrible cruelty in this world, and it is perhaps unlikely--though horribly possible--for any one of us to have such an awful fate as to be tortured to death; such has been the fate of many people better than I, to be sure.

But this is mostly extremely unfortunate people, with such horrific fates before them. There is still yet the fate of all but only the most fortunate. For if we are not careful in this world, if we neglect plotting out a favorable destiny, we may end up miserable drunks on the corner, prostitutes, drug addicts--or mere third-world factory laborers paid a pittance and struggling day by day to eat and sleep. There are many and many in this life and world who wax opulent with luxury and ease; and there are many and many people in prisons, or effectual wage-slaves who pick fruit; and there are many and many in between these two extremes, and where we shall end up as we cannot for certain pronounce.

This life is dire, and its consequences grave. The suffering of the homeless, the disabled, the hungry--it is very real suffering, a manifest hell on earth; and so many millions live through it day by day. The world is a trial; whether or not we believe in any state after death for us, we must admit that stories of anguish and torture are hardly tall tales in this world; they are, in fact, stark realities for millions, many of whom have striven harder than I have to avoid them.

To state the principle more essentially, you might say that we all in this world are subject to innumerable evils, just by virtue of us living in this world in the flesh. There are many horrific physical and mental diseases we may succumb to; there is the fact that most of our time here, some other could do us violence or murder us; there are wars, instability of government and essential services, robberies and every other atrocity with which men treat their fellow men. And according to our very organic bodies, if we do not find food to eat each day, we end up in the agony of starvation.

But we are not merely handed this crucible that we may take whatever happens to be our destiny. Most of what befalls us in this world--though there are a throng of counterexamples--we can do something about. In fact, most of what we do in this world is in terms of this “doing something about it”--merely showing up at our place of employment is a means to keep starvation at bay. We are handed uneven means, uneven intellect, uneven health and uneven opportunity in this life. We are not all dealt the same value of a hand, nor anywhere close to the same. But nor is there hardly anyone among us who does nothing about that hand, who does not react when actions are taken against us, whether violence or a loss of employment. For an innocent man on trial for a crime, true, pure luck has ruined his life; but he does not cease to fight therefore, but he takes up his fate with vigor and tries his utmost to retain his freedom and clear his name.

We react to what is given us, and as much as the world treats us with this or that obstacle, so too do we treat the world in turn. This life is grave and its consequences are grave; many people in this world have had true fates hardly better than the Lake of Fire. But we are given not only blind luck with which to deal with life; we are given the chance to stand up to the plate and try--if we can--to soar, as so many millions have, and as so many other millions have failed to do.

Every day we interact with the world--be these people loved ones or strangers--and every day with what we say to them, do for them, or do to them, there is someone out there who has heard us, or felt what we offer, whether aid or abuse. Most of what “the world” is when we talk about the world giving us this or that fate--most of what this “world” is, is merely a certain sum of others just like us. And while these others are free to a certain extent to do us evil, so too for each of them: we are free to do good or evil to them as well. We are handed blessings or horrors by others, but to the others, we’re just one more among the many handing blessings or horrors to them. We are all vulnerable to the Other; but the Other is vulnerable to us. We are all vulnerable to all the other men in this world, and every day we see others who are vulnerable to us. Whenever a man is generous, someone else has received generosity; and when a man is vicious, someone else has received his cruelty. We are all free agents, with not only a vulnerability to others, but they being vulnerable to us as well.

And so yes--the world is a grave trial, with very real hells and horrors whether we live on after death or not. All of us in this world are subject to possible torture and torment, and likewise the power to torment, or bless, many others. And so we suspect some God has put us all in this situation, here to both feel what pain is like and test us with the capacity to inflict the same; but if we are rewarded for good or punished for evil after the grave, we do not know it; though, if we did, would it be in any sense a true test of us?