Comments on: Embrace the Opportunity of Adversity http://www.altnoise.net/opportunity-of-adversity/ Misfit novelist living life with purpose and passion Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:05:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Darius Trunkhttp://www.altnoise.net/opportunity-of-adversity/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Darius Trunk Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:18:13 +0000 http://www.altnoise.net/?p=13#comment-5 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?" 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?”

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