tough times

It is a fact that challenges are to be expected in our lives - whether we like it or not. Knowing that it will eventually come is the easy part but being in the middle of it is a different story.

There are challenges we have been facing over and over (e.g. financial difficulty, relational conflicts, health problems, and many more) but in different levels of difficulty. However, some of these situations have become "easy" for us; though i wouldn't want to call it a challenge if it has become "easy". But, there are "easy" challenges that we have learned to deal with - weather phenomena, quarrels, and the like - and have dealt with "reflex". We have developed a system of automatic reactions because the situations have become familiar. Typhoons are an example. Those who are always exposed to these weather phenomena go about their usual daily activities even if there is a broadcast for a super typhoon while those who are new to our country stay indoors for fear of calamities brought about by these weather disturbances. We have learned to adapt.

There are, however, challenges that takes up your whole being and challenges you to the point where you want to give up and retreat. These are times where people experience stress, develop insomnia, feel their joints or even bones shake and even their emotions crumble.

We might try hard to avoid it but we cannot. It is part of life's design. We discover that without it, life will cease to be exciting. Life will be boring without it.

I realized the great importance of these challenges that muster every aspect of our being human. It is in the course of these challenges where we become men and women - character is fortified, principles are developed, and even emotions are tamed. A skill or talent can never be at its greatest without going through challenging times. A piece of metal can never become a sword unless it is heated and hammered. There needs to be a tough time to bring out the best within. I believe it holds true for each of us - the greatest potential within each one of us can never come out unless we go through "heating" and "hammering".

The great inventors who made a difference in our history were never spared from difficulties - they failed a number of times before they made their greatest invention.

We are being molded to become greater than who we are today.

Note: This blog is an abridged version of my original blog entitled "these tough times" on 8 May 2007 which was posted in Friendster.