Hardships and Hope
I’m discovering that life is like a bicycle.
Every time you get on a bicycle and ride, both wheels are in motion. The similarity is this: instead of there being seasons where it is only good in our lives and other seasons where it is only bad, we tend to have a mixture of both.
We travel on both wheels at all times. Even on the most dramatically good days, we have hardships. And on the worst of days, there is some good.
In contemporary thought, the idea of hope is often diluted by the false promise that we can live a trouble-free life, exempt from hardship and crises.
Yet, generations before us would attest that it was these very trials and challenges that forged greatness in them.
Hardship and hope together can do something for us that a problem-free life never could.
We need to reframe how we view our troubles.
Some of the greatest challenges we experience in life will also turn out to be the best sources of opportunity, renewal, and creativity. Our greatest challenges in life are linked to our greatest growth.
“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
James 1:2-4 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jas.1.2-4.NLT
““Submit to God, and you will have peace; then things will go well for you.”
Job 22:21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/job.22.21.NLT
Every time you get on a bicycle and ride, both wheels are in motion. The similarity is this: instead of there being seasons where it is only good in our lives and other seasons where it is only bad, we tend to have a mixture of both.
We travel on both wheels at all times. Even on the most dramatically good days, we have hardships. And on the worst of days, there is some good.
In contemporary thought, the idea of hope is often diluted by the false promise that we can live a trouble-free life, exempt from hardship and crises.
Yet, generations before us would attest that it was these very trials and challenges that forged greatness in them.
Hardship and hope together can do something for us that a problem-free life never could.
We need to reframe how we view our troubles.
Some of the greatest challenges we experience in life will also turn out to be the best sources of opportunity, renewal, and creativity. Our greatest challenges in life are linked to our greatest growth.
“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
James 1:2-4 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jas.1.2-4.NLT
““Submit to God, and you will have peace; then things will go well for you.”
Job 22:21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/job.22.21.NLT