Thesecan be small day to day annoyances or calamities that push our
patience and will power to their limits. Sometimes it is hard for a
person to understand the reasons behind these horrible events,
especially when he/she knows that there is a God maintaining order in
the universe andWho is merciful. In such asituation a person may even
resent God and ask why He is making life so difficult, especially when
He is supposed to love Hisdevoted servants.
It is important to remember that when making a judgment about a
situation we should think about whether or not we have enough
knowledge to doso. Something that is badin our minds may actuallybe
good, and we may only think it is bad because of our limited
perception and knowledge. For example, imagine a person who has lived
all his life in a rain forest. He has no knowledge of technologyor
civilizations and only knows what he has learned from experience and
from those around him. If we were to take him and bring him to the
city and showed him skyscrapers, cars, and computers, he would be
overwhelmed and overawed by the extravagance. Now, if he were to be
taken past a construction site where cranes and bulldozers were
demolishing a building, he would think that something bad was being
done. In his mind the construction workers would be destroying a
perfectly good building for no reason at all, and this act would be
considered senseless by him. But he is not aware that the old building
is being torn down so that a better one can be erected in its place,
and ifhe knew this, he would not think badly of the construction
workers for tearing down the old building. He would be happy that they
are bringing something better and would now consider the destruction
of the old building as something good and necessary. The hardship that
the people living around the site must bear by having to look at the
ugly torn down building for months, having their streets closed down
and traffic tied up, is only something temporary. Some people may
actually curse the construction workers for bringing this hardship
onthem but they are not keeping in mind that these hardships will be
followed by ease and improvement. Instead of viewing these things as
hardship and becoming annoyed and angry, one could see them as a sign
that soon there will be ease and progress.
An artist can relate to having people look at hiswork in its beginning
or middle stages, and without knowing what the end product will be,
they give unwarranted criticism. That is when heasks them to wait for
when it is finished. In thebeginning or in the middle the work may
notbe pleasing or have muchmeaning, but once it is completed then
everyonecan see what he was working towards. We humans can only attain
such a limited amount of knowledge in our lives. So how can we look at
a hurricane, tornado, flood, Tsunami or volcano and blame God that He
is doing something cruel and unjust? How can we know what His ultimate
purpose is for all of thesehappenings? In the same way that the man
from the rain forest would be unjustified in viewing the demolition of
old buildings as wrong, we would be unjustified to view the calamities
of nature as cruel acts of God.
There was once a king who put his subjects through a test. He went out
onto the main road of his kingdom and he had a large stone placed in
the middle, thereby making the road difficult to cross. After having
placed the large stone hehid himself nearby to watch the reaction of
thepeople. He saw the dignitaries of his court and the wealthy cross
by,and as they did so they managed it only with great difficulty.
While they did so, they cursed the rock and said to each other, why
doesn't the King move this rock? All of the wealthy aristocratswent
along in the same manner, cursing the rock and wondering in amazement
at the incompetence of the Kingto have placed such an obstacle in
their path, because it only brought them hardship. Then along came a
poor old man carrying a heavy load on his back, and the King watched
him intently. The old man stopped in his tracks and looked at how the
stone was blocking the road. He put down his load andbegan, with great
difficulty and tremendous effort, to move the stone off of theroad.
Using all his strength and ability he finally accomplished his task.
When he went back to the road and looked atthe spot where the stone
had been, he saw a bag, picked it up, opened it, and found it to be
full of jewels and a note from the King indicating that the jewels was
for the person who removed theboulder from the roadway. The old man
learned what many others never understand.He placed his load on his
back along with his new treasure and went on his way. This story
illustrates a fact of life, that there is no ease or success or
progress or elevation without some sacrifice and hardship along the
way. But once the end is reached that hardship would no longer be seen
as unbearable.
Moral: Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one's condition.
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