There are many experinces we encounter in life, some are positive, others are quite difficult, at times even debilitating. We all know the saying, 'if it won't kill you, it will make you stronger', but we who are all still alive and beathing, can we really say every experience has make us stronger?
'A little piece of me died today' is an expression many of us can relate to. Hurt, disallusionment, and disapointment are not what we usually call positive experiences. It's true we can learn much from these experiences, protect ourselves better in the future by creating a tougher skin or perhaps a more calloused heart. Is this our understanding of becoming stronger? Or is our response to these experiences actually killing us?
The truth is we are all physically dying, some of us are further along in the process than others. Our cells are degenerating, skin is wrinkling, teeth are decaying, eyesight is deteriorating, all this is a normal process of life. Heart disease, cancer and other many other ailments bring us closer to realisation our days are numbered. We could blame our diet, polution or excess UV exposure, but there is no escaping the fact that to dust we will return, and bit by bit pieces of us are dying every day.
Jesus said 'I have come to give you life, and life more abundantly'. True, we are living longer these days, and it seems our physical quality of life has improved significantly over the past century or so, but have we become more alive, and are we living more abundantly? I guess the real question is: 'How alive do we feel?'
Clearly there are experiences that bring us joy and make us feel more alive. Positive experiences like the win of a favourite sports team or the satisfaction of a job well done, spending time with good friends and of course love. There are also experiences that hurt and damage our spirit and emotions, such as failure of an important project, loss of a business or job, death fo a close friend or facing rejection of a loved one. As pain is such a real part of our lives, how should we deal with it and use it to make us stonger?
To be honest, i don't know the short answer to this. Truth is, time heals many of our wounds, but i sometimes wonder what it takes to resurrect the pieces that have died in the process. I have come to understand restoration takes place as we re-discover joy in life. But joy seems to be so elusive to us, especially in our high stress societies. True joy comes from above, but we die a little each day as we are consumed by things that have little eternal value. And even though we seem to be healthier and are living much longer, we somehow have lost time for deeper and more meaningful relationships be it with friends or with God. And these are the very ingredients we so need to cultivate joy in our lives.
Abundant life, joy, healing... What is making us stronger? Perhaps the more pertinant question is 'Who is making us stronger?'
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