Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.” – Arthur Golden
Life happens is my favorite phrase.
I am always thinking it. Why did my chair break when I was sitting on it.. Life happens. Why was it me who slipped on the wet floor carrying a large tray of spaghetti.. Life happens. Why is it that I get pulled over, when I’m already late to work..
Life Happens..
Truth of Adversity
Life happens is a great philosophy for all the dumb annoyances, but for major adversity it is a little harder to stomach. It is very difficult to understand why a student will die only days before graduation or why a wife catches a cheating spouse, and its even more frustrating when I believe in a personal God who wants to “talk” with me.
If Life Happens and I’m a faithful person why doesn’t God say,
“Woah, Nelly.. Stephen’s had enough for a lifetime.”
Adversity Breeds Empathy
One Sunday during a group discussion, a man whom I don’t even know said that maybe God allows suffering so that we can help others who go through similar situations. Even though one could technically respond, “well either God can’t stop suffering or God doesn’t care”, but the input from the man in the discussion gave me a whole new perspective.
Why God allow suffering is an unanswerable question with only theoretical responses, but we can control our reactions during or after the suffering.
Adversity Provides an Opportunity for Compassion
Jesus endured a death of suffering that would comfort millions throughout two thousand years. I can hear God whispering to me, “I need you to be a blessing and comfort those who are in need, therefore for their sake, you need to suffer alongside them.”
Jesus told us that to follow him, we would lose everything and gain little. Following God doesn’t mean Big issues wont occur. Instead, adversity will come like a rising of a Tsunami and crash harder for those who decide to follow the way of Jesus.
Your struggles with addictions, loneliness, and a troubled history will rip at the walls of your soul and faith, leaving you drowned in tears on the floor alone.
I don’t know if I could tell anyone that there are rainbows on the other side, but in my struggles I press on in faith. I can’t explain why we encounter adversity in life, but because of faith I choose to ignore the doubters and focus on comforting others who are entering similar situations as my past experiences. So the question becomes..
Life always happens. Do you embrace the opportunity the experiences provide you?
~*~
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Hello! My name is Stephen Miracle. I am the founder of altNoise. I have worked in ministry for the last decade. Please enjoy and freely share these articles created with love.
I would have to have to agree. Bad things must happen. If they are done because of other people (abusive family members, terrorists, and your big brother punching you in the arm), God usually won’t do a thing to stop it, because he has given us the wonderful gift of agency. It is unfortunate when someone uses their agency to take away someone else’s agency, but those are the sins that are most “punishable” and harder to repent of, because sometimes you have taken away something that can’t be given back.
If, on the other hand, they weren’t necessarily caused by other people–they were self-inflicted or just “stuff” happening–then yeah, God can allow that to happen to try our Faith and see if we will keep enduring to the end, a la Abraham and Isaac.
There are some great scriptures out there that deal with this too. We should take comfort that God “will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 CORINTHIANS 10:13). Also, there is a great passage in the book of Mormon where Lehi tells his son Jacob that there must be an opposition in all things. Where it not so, “righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad” (2 Nephi 2:11). Without bad times, the good times wouldn’t feel so good! It is all about perspective. Bad times will always come. But as you say, “what do you do about it?”