"Do not be surprised that you fall every day; do not give up, but stand your ground courageously. And assuredly, the angel who guards you will honor your patience." -- St. John of the Ladder
Open a newspaper these days and you will be sickened by what you read. Our world seems to be careening downhill out of control. In many respects we have been taking a vacation from history. We having been living large, as they say, trying to ignore what is going on around us. We often forget that life is difficult, and it has a nasty habit of reminding us now and then. Our world can be turned upside down overnight. No matter how hard we try to avoid them, adversity and suffering find us. When they do, they invariably have much to teach us. The disasters, large and small, in our lives create the ability to bear them and have the ability to make us stronger.
Our eyes weaken as we grow older, but we begin to discern many things more clearly as we age. What was seen as a devastating blow in our youth, later appears as a less threatening but worrisome obstacle. As we grow in experience and wisdom, obstacles become less fearful and are reduced to difficult challenges. Later, difficult challenges are viewed as valuable lessons. And valuable lessons become learning experiences that change us forever.
My mother-in-law, Maria, the closest thing I have to a mother these days, has taught me about the importance of facing adversity with a good attitude. The importance of trusting God. The crucible of hard times can make us more callous, even cynical.Sometimes it can destroy us. Yet, those who willingly allow themselves to be forged, hammered, and shaped by adversity, grow as a result.
Maria lost her father and lived through the German occupation and the Civil War as a child. She has known hunger and extreme poverty. She spent most of her adult life hunched over a sewing machine or raising her family. Plagued by health problems, weakened by old age and watching her husband, lifelong relatives and friends die, I am amazed by the nobility and compassion that have become hallmarks of her life. The greatest lesson her life of suffering has taught me is that we are measured in the end not by what we achieve but rather by how we face up to the trials God bestows upon us.
One of the Desert Fathers, Abba Isaiah said that "When God wishes to take pity on a soul and it rebels, not bearing anything and doing its own will, he then allows it to suffer that which it does not want, in order that it may seek him again."
By seeking him again, we live with hope, for to live without God, is to live with despair.
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