How To Keep Going When Life Gets Hard
Last week, we talked about taking the hard path in life, for the path of least resistance is a slide into chaos. Today, we’ll talk about the trials we encounter when we walk the hard path in life.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
This is a question we often ask when our kindness is rewarded with pain and suffering while the wickedness of others gets rewarded with comfort and pleasure.
We cry out, “It’s not fair!” We rage against our fate. After all, don’t we deserve to be treated better than the fools, thieves, beggars, and brutes we encounter on a daily basis?
The wicked of the world take and take and take, like ravenous pits of quicksand, while the good people create health, joy, and abundance through their labor, only to be kicked in the teeth by the boots of misfortune.
This seems paradoxical –– the wages of virtue are trouble and pain, while the wages of wickedness are comfort and pleasure.
Is the world simply an evil place, or is there purpose in our pain?
Quote Of The Week
“Constant misfortune brings this one blessing: to whom it always assails, it eventually fortifies.” –– Seneca
Enter The Forge
A bit of iron, when chosen for a greater purpose, is thrust into fire, beaten at the anvil, and quenched, over and over, until it takes on its intended form.
This is likewise the lot of a good person. They are polished, perfected, strengthened, and shaped into something greater than their origin by trials. It is through pain that they become good.
In contrast, a bit of iron with no purpose is nothing more than a rock with a clever name. It sits in comfort in a bucket or on a table. It may be used as a paper weight, or to bludgeon a foe, but it will never be a chain, a shield, or a sword.
What does this mean for the person enduring relentless blows at the forge of life?
- You have been selected for a higher purpose
- It will get worse before it gets better
Complaining will not stop the blows of the hammer — it will only make you resent them more. So, for the sake of your sanity, give thanks for the forge.
You are becoming good steel.
Question Of The Week
Consider some of your life’s circumstances that you resent. How have these misfortunes made you a better person?
Live On Purpose // Die Without Regrets
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