Recently I’ve been listening to the audio book, “The Happiness Hypothesis” and more specifically a sub-chapter entitled, “The Adversity Hypothesis.” In the segment the author posits the question of whether or not adversity makes you stronger. An interesting question, don’t you think? But, as you may have come to expect by now, I plan to hit this subject from another angle. So before we delve in, I’d like to say how grateful I am that someone took the time to teach me the truth concerning God and life so that I don’t have to spend my time and effort researching what men say and studying conclusions that philosophers make! If you think about it, the disadvantage a scientist or a philosopher has is that they can only study the effects of what is and what is, is not always as it appears to be… Add to that the reality that God has so arranged life in order to help us win and overcome, but that arrangement often appears as an original intention, not an adaptation. Confused? Okay, I’ll explain…
God in His ultimate perfection does not need evil or suffering or pain to make us better people. The prototype, Adam, was not designed to suffer or get sick or even die. His beginnings started without the influence of evil. Adam’s choice allowed the entrance of evil and as a result people have been suffering ever since. Am I angry with Adam? Of course not. I’m just glad it wasn’t up to me (smile). I digress… So along the way of life, human beings now have to overcome evil and pain and suffering. Was it part of the plan? Well, yes and no. No, in that it was not God’s original intention (remember He is all love and light), but yes in that in His foreknowledge He knew what his blessed free-will man would do. And thus knowing, made a way for man to escape the clutches of evil and sadly overcome his suffering. And to now come full circle, in the future there will one day be no such thing as evil again and those of us who choose to believe will live forever without any suffering ever again (in that day when… He shall wipe the tears from their eyes). But until that great future day, here we are…
So, does what doesn’t kill you make you stronger? Yes, if so be that you happen to survive it. There are many folks still living today that have not actually survived it. For example, I recently received a long comment on one of my blogs, where I was expounding God’s ability to heal us from His heart of love, whereby a rather hurt lady proceeded to inform me about her horrible suffering dating back to her childhood; her ardent displeasure in God for apparently allowing it to happen and her present sentiment, “F**k God for allowing it! And naturally my heart goes out to her. You see, she is alive but is clearly not okay. So why would anyone ever conclude that God would purposefully allow suffering or worse, cause suffering to make people better in the end? That logic is insane even on the surface, yet that’s what “people” say and teach and so life goes on in suffering. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, God does not “allow” bad things to happen to people! His heart of love is infinitely greater than yours and mine; infinitely greater! He doesn’t need the horrific ways of the adversary to help Him bring His people up. But free will necessitates that we all can choose what we will believe and thereby ultimately what we may unknowingly allow. And I should point out before you get angry with me, of course a child isn’t responsible for what is “allowed” to happen to him. Parents are responsible to believe “for” their children, while they are still children. Then, it’s a daisy chain of events that sometimes goes on for generations because as a whole, folks don’t generally understand what God is really all about and what He can and will do to help us. Even worse, many people don’t even think there is an adversary that seeks to work them woe, so they blindly assign it all to God, and suffer! I’m no scholar perhaps, but I’d be pretty pissed at God if He did cruel horrible things to me and my family! And, would not give a damn how many mysterious purposes you assigned to the evil!
So after being very clear regarding who does the good and who does the evil, we are ready to answer the question and the answer is maybe… The obstacles and trials of life can actually make you stronger if you can see them for what they really are; attribute it to the evil that is really behind it and believe God to show you the way to recovery and wholeness. Research actually shows that people recover faster from tragedies when they are able to make sense of what happened and random happenstance or bad luck makes no sense!
God has given all of us the ability through His Word and His spirit to overcome even the most devastating of events (See Job in the Bible), but you and I, like Job, have to get to the place where we see God for who He really is; a loving, kind, tender, compassionate Father that seeks our best interest no matter what we have done to the contrary! Blaming ourselves for the evil that happens in our lives will never help us. What helps us is when we get real honest and earnestly seek the answers to the questions that plague us. There is always an answer folks.
Life being what it is, in version B, we are going to face many obstacles and challenges. They weren’t just part of life, but now they are just part of life. Accordingly, God is able to use that wrong directed toward you (for no good reason) and turn it to your benefit as you get strong and wise in areas you were formerly weak and ignorant. But in the process, let Him show you how to do it without the suffering part. You’ll like that a lot better!
Does what doesn’t kill you make you stronger? Yes, if you get God involved!
Just some good thoughts (that didn’t kill you!)…