John wrote:
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1 John 2)
It is not enough for God to tell us that the things of this world are of limited utility. He must show us. The more we seek light and truth, the more he can. The more understanding a person acquires in this world, the more he will see the fragility and fleetingness of the things this world has to offer. They will suffer wave after wave of disappointment. The things they work harder than most to obtain will, once obtained, turn to dust in their hands. They will be tempted to think, “what is the point of any of this?”
A more mature perspective follows: What was actually desired in the first place? Was it really what was acquired? Or was the disappointment instead because a greater perspective of things as they really are showed that what was being pursued cannot provide what was sought? With every wave of disappointment, the person believes more and more that God is the only source of what he seeks. Everything else only contributes to that goal as far as it is a part of the path that God has provided to reach him.
We all come to this life with whatever character and desire for light and truth we acquired before this life. During this life, we must rebuild the awareness and understanding of good and evil that we attained before this life. If we surpass it, we will end this life with more character and desire for light and truth than we came with.
The most endowed intelligences arrive on this earth without a realization of how different they are to those around them. They suffer much more than those around them, because they project their advanced character and desire for good onto those around them and then struggle to understand why they are consistently assaulted by the behavior and failure of others. After sufficient repeats of the frustration cycle, they may finally come to the point where they realize that what they seek—someone or some environment that reflects or at least absorbs the light that they emit—is not the source of their frustration. Instead, it is in whom they are seeking it, as it is not to be found in this world. Instead, they have to come to the point where they realize the kingdom of heaven is within, that what they seek can only be found in God, and that they emanate light not for the reflection or absorption of it, but because it is who they are. They do it not for what they get back, but because they can’t help it. They don’t expect anyone to desire or appreciate the light they have acquired, but they give it freely anyway because that is what God does and they want to be with him and like he is.