A poem by German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger,
shared at the April 26 Sunday service by Karin Reinhold.

Life disappoints you so you stop living from illusions and see reality.
Life destroys everything superfluous, until only the important remains
Life does not leave you in peace, so you stop fighting, and accept everything as it is?
Life takes what you have, until you stop complaining and learn gratitude
Life sends you troubled people so that you can heal and stop projecting what you have inside.
Life lets you fall again and again, until you decide to learn the lesson.
Life takes you out of the way and presents you with crossroads, until you stop wanting to control and learn to flow like a river.
Life puts you enemies on the road, until you stop “reacting”.
Life frightens you and startles you as many times as necessary, until you lose the fear and regain faith.
Life takes away your true love, it does not grant or allow it, until you stop trying to buy it with trinkets.
Life distances you from the people you love, until you understand that we are not this body, but the soul that powers it.
Life laughs at you so many times, until you stop taking everything so seriously and laugh at yourself. Life breaks you and breaks you in as many parts as necessary for the light to penetrate.
Life confronts you with rebels, until you stop trying to control.
Life repeats the same message, even with shouts and slaps, until you finally listen.
Life sends you thunder and storms, so you wake up. Life humiliates and defeats you again and again until you decide to let the EGO die.
Life denies you goods and greatness until you stop wanting goods and greatness and you begin to serve. Life cuts your wings and prunes your roots, until you need neither wings nor roots, but only disappear in the forms and fly from the Self.
Life denies you miracles, until you understand that everything is a miracle.
Life shortens your time, so you hurry to learn to live. Life ridicules you until you become nothing, until you become nobody, and so you become everything.
Life does not give you what you want, but what you need to evolve.
Life hurts you, hurts you, torments you, until you let go of your whims and tantrums and appreciate just breathing.
Life hides treasures from you, until you start your journey, until you go out to look for them.
Life denies you God, until you see it in everyone and everything.
Life shortens you, prunes you, takes you away, breaks you, disappoints you, cracks you, … until only LOVE remains.”

~ Bert Hellinger.