STRUGGLES By Fr.
Stephen Recently,
someone said in my presence: “Why is life such a struggle?Couldn’t God make things easier for
me!?”In thinking about that, I realized
that life often is a struggle!And some
days seem to be a greater struggle than others.Some people seem to go through more struggles than most, but everyone
has struggles. Consider the following:
One day a
small opening appeared on a cocoon, a man sat and watched for the butterfly for
several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole.Then it seemed to stop making any progress.
It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no
further.So the man decided to help the
butterfly, he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the
cocoon.The butterfly then emerged
easily.But it had a swollen body and
small, shriveled wings.The man
continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the
wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would
contract in time.
Neither
happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around
with a swollen body and shriveled wings.It never was able to fly.What
the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting
cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny
opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its
wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from
the cocoon.
Sometimes
struggles are exactly what we need in our life.If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it might
indeed cripple us.We would not be as
strong as what we could have been.We
could not fly.The old adage is so very
true that God is more interested in our spiritual growth and formation than He
is with our comfort.Here are some
typical prayer requests and some unexpected answers...
I asked for
Strength.........And God gave me Difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for
Wisdom..........And God gave me Problems to solve.
I asked for
Prosperity..........And God gave me a Brain and Brawn to work.
I asked for
Courage..........And God gave me Danger to overcome.
I asked for
Love..........And God gave me Troubled people to help.
I asked for
Favors...........And God gave me Opportunities.
Sometimes our
struggles in life are due to our own mistakes.Have you ever made a mistake...not just a little error, but a
biggy?All of us have at some point gone
through mistakes of varying magnitudes.So how did you handle those mistakes or struggles in your life?The measure of a person often shows up, not
with the successes in life, but with the failures.It is a pretty easy thing to ride the wave of
praise that comes from doing something right.It's another thing to bounce back from a mistake and become
successful.In a recent survey of the
top executives across our country, almost all of them credited their current
success with having gone through failure and disappointment in the past.They learned from it and grew in a positive
direction as a result of it.
Here is a story
of a man that made a terrible mistake early in his life:
As a young
boy, he was out walking in an orchard one day when he spotted a beautiful owl
sleeping on the low branch of a tree.He
decided to catch the owl and have it for a pet.He managed to sneak up on the owl and grabbed it by its legs.The owl went wild, beating the boy with its
wings and scratching him.The boy tried
to hang on, but finally in his panic and pain, he threw the owl to the ground
and began stomping on it.When the dust
cleared, he had stomped the owl to death.The boy was overcome with sorrow over the great mistake he had
made.He couldn't bring the owl back to
life, but perhaps he could find some other way to overcome his sorrow.He began to draw pictures of birds to share
with family and friends.His drawings
were so excellent that he expanded into drawing other animals and figures.That was the beginning of what would become a
lifetime occupation.The young boy grew
into the man we knew and loved...Walt Disney.
We have a
definite choice before us when we make mistakes or when struggles come our way.We can learn and grow stronger and better from
what has happened or we can live in depression and bitterness, becoming a
smaller person day by day.One event can
rule the rest of our lives if we don't allow ourselves to rise above it.What could be a stepping stone to better
days and success may easily become a tombstone, burying our lives in dismal
failure.
This has
obvious applications to our lives in general.We can apply this to our relationships with family and friends and to
our work situations.It also has very
serious applications to our spiritual lives.Many people have had some adversity come along in their lives.Rather than grow from it, they have made the
decision to blame God for what has happened.It could be a death or illness, a problem in Church, or any multitude of
things. Whatever the reason, their
bitterness toward God or the Church has become a tombstone.Their spiritual life has become stagnant or
dead.We probably all know people that
quit going to Church 20 years ago because someone offended them.Or they quit praying, because things didn't
go the way they wanted (someone wasn't healed or someone died).God never promised there wouldn't be struggles
in our lives.He promised that He would
be with us in the midst of those struggles.
God can take our
struggles and use them for good in our lives.Even the worse situations can become stepping stones for spiritual
success, if we turn to God rather than away from Him:
"And
we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who
have been called according to His purpose...If God is for us who can be against
us?Who shall separate us from the love
of Christ?Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through Him who loved us." (See Romans 8:28-39 for some more
food for thought.)
May we all
learn to use mistakes, failures, and struggles in our lives as stepping stones
to success in our work lives, our social lives, and especially in our spiritual
lives.God’s blessings be with each of
you!