Uncomfortable, difficult, troublesome, agonizing, stressful, painful, tearful, and heartbroken—these are just a few adjectives that describe difficult times. We have all experienced them, some of us more painfully than others, but everyone in this world has their story of pain to tell. So how do we manage? How do we find comfort, peace and something positive in difficult times? First, we begin by understanding the reality of this dimension: that everything has two sides and that for every positive there is a negative; for every curse there is a blessing. With this in mind, let’s look at 7 benefits and blessings of tough times.
1. Make us stronger
It is a fact of life that muscles get stronger under stress. That’s why athletes and people concerned about their health and longevity lift weights and exercise. Stress is part of the strengthening process. When one is tired, it is difficult to give up the comfort of a recliner, sofa or bed, but if we do not resist such temptations, the result is that we become a soft mass of mush with all its debilitating physical problems. Hard workouts make us stronger. So do the hard times. If we didn’t have hard times, we could never become strong. Therefore, as uncomfortable as the difficult times are, the positive action is to embrace them.
2. Generate patience
Patience is a great virtue. It prevents us from pampering ourselves and having rights. It deepens our character and strengthens our essence as a person. Difficult times demand that we learn patience. If we don’t, we will have a nervous breakdown or develop other mental, physical, or emotional problems. We have to learn to wait. Patience is the virtue of waiting. All things come in due time. The seeds we plant must eventually bring a harvest. Patience is the process of nurturing seeds until they bear fruit.
3. Forcing ourselves to rethink our lives and values
When times and conditions are rough and tough, they force us to rethink life and our place in it. We often need this jolt. As Socrates said, The unexamined life is not worth living. Rethinking often leads us to reformulate how we manage our lives and their circumstances. Such examination often sets us on a new course toward greater fulfillment. When we don’t examine our life, our actions, behaviors, morals, ethics, and conduct, we become stale and swampy. We need hard times to keep the waters of our being stirred up so that they can be cleansed of impurities. Stagnant waters create stagnant lives.
4. Potentially transform us into diamonds
An ordinary lump of coal or a diamond, which would we rather be? If our choice is to become a diamond, we must submit to the heat, pressure and time necessary to create the most exquisite of all gems. By doing so, we will get great value. The simple truth is that if we don’t put ourselves through the heat, pressure, and time it takes to become a diamond, we’ll remain a relatively worthless, run-of-the-mill old lump of coal. Diamonds are made under extreme heat and pressure over an extended period of time, not by a mother and the casual whiff of an intermittent wind. Therefore, difficult times are a welcome condition. Without them we remain unpressured, untested, unchanged… and common.
5. Make us appreciative and grateful
There is probably no greater spiritual virtue than being grateful and appreciative, not just for those things, events, and conditions that we personally like, but for everything we get in life, whether we perceive those things as blessings or not. Sometimes the best gifts are the hard times, the heartbreaks, the heartbreaks, the stressful days, months, years, or even decades. The conclusion of human life is that we are human. The human form is not to be taken lightly. It has more purpose and design than is commonly known. It is a blessing beyond blessings, and regardless of our condition in life, we should be thankful that, spiritually speaking, we may never have it again.
6. Let us see what is real and important
Difficult times reset our focus and make us see what is important in life. Too often we drift into the superficial rags of materialism and worldly involvement. We get consumed with things that don’t matter at all, even though we think they do matter. But what about the things that really matter: life itself, love, wholeness, health, family and… God.
7. Direct our consciousness towards God
This is the greatest benefit and blessing of difficult times: they often force us to redirect our attention towards God and away from everything that is external, mundane, superficial, material and meaningless. No hard times, do we ever look forward? Honestly no. We are too involved in enjoying what is external. The problem with this approach is that we can become so magnetized by the external that we live our entire lives within the “Great Outside”, abandoning the blessings and success-generating life of the “Great Inside”.
Summary
Difficult times bring stress and difficulties. However, when we open our eyes to its benefits we are seriously hurt. Only great stress can create great peace. Only great tests can create great souls. Therefore, let us embrace the difficult times with a fearless spirit and a grateful attitude. Doing so will be of tremendous value to us and to our souls as we move through the twists and turns of our human journey.