Encouragement
Encouragement: (my definition): The act of either giving or receiving courage (or hope) in order to act or to live.
Webster's first definition encourage and supplementary definition encouragement .
Most of us have heard the saying "Life is tough" and I'm sure many people (myself included) have seen a bumper sticker that says it in a pretty crude way as "Life's a B____ , then you die". Whether the suffering in our lives is little or great, everyone can pretty-much agree that it certainly is "no fun".
It seems that all of humanity encounters difficulty and dilemma in its struggle to survive. That being the case, you have to marvel at the human soul's ability to continue to fight and survive, in the hope that "some day" things will get better. Lord-willing, they will be, but as we all know, there are certainly no guarantees.
Considerations: Nobody is immune from difficulties. Even the spiritual giants had moments of despair. One that I find particularly compelling is the example that the Apostle Paul gives in his second letter to the Corinthians. In Chapter 1, verse 8 we see him saying:
Brothers, we do not wish to leave you in the dark about the troubles we had in Asia. We were crushed beyond our strength, even to the point of despairing of life. We were left to feel like men condemned to death so that we might trust not in ourselves but in God who raises the dead ...........
Why Would God Allow this ?? The final statement above answers that question directly. We are to put our trust in God and not in ourselves. If this sounds like hooey to you, consider the principle in "Alcoholics Anonymous" where one turns their addiction (and life) over to a higher power. This principle WORKS. If it was a lie, I would imagine that the human psyche would sense it and that this surrender would cause more harm than good. But this seems NOT to be the case.
Further, if there is a GOD (and I can't prove there is), then it would seem that He can drive the ship much better than I. Now I know this brings much difficulty to someone who doesn't believe in God. Their argument is simply: "To surrender to someone else" is not only cowardly, but the shirking of their responsibility as a human being and therefore inhuman". I am not trying to put words in anyone's mouth, but am paraphrasing this argument not only from conversations I have had with secular humanists, but with my own inner struggles and times I have found myself thinking in precisely this way. As for the idea that surrender is cowardly, let me simply say that it depends upon the circumstances. Now that discussion is a separate topic itself and I won't go into that in this page, but I will deal with it in detail later (hold me to this ok?). Next, the assertion that surrender is a shirking of responsibility, I will once again say that it depends upon the circumstances.
I would like to paraphrase a quote from the Croatian nun that is the subject of my documentary, namely Marija Petkovic' of Christ Crucified:
"If I had money I would trust in my money, but since I don't I trust in my Jesus"..........
Look at all of the things this beautiful nun accomplished in her life and THEN after her death. These EXAMPLES are practical data points that SHOW us that this kind of faith is not only possible, but actual.
But What about more extreme cases, where God couldn't possibly be "using" this as a teacher ??
One example that comes to my mind is sexual abuse of children and the carnage that this causes in their lives. Another is severe disability of people who are born with often-painful illnesses and must live their lives managing them. Certainly, God can't enjoy their suffering. My take on it is simply that in these kinds of cases, God does three things to get them through this seemingly "unjust" existence. First, He places people in their lives to help them. Second, He himself gives them inner strength to make up for whatever the people helping them can't give. Finally, I believe that they have the highest places in heaven. I believe this because I am a Christian. I believe that God Himself suffered as deeply as anyone could and therefore can relate. Hence, the people that suffer in this life are the people that are the dearest to Him. I myself have found HOPE in this concept, for I have suffered from depression for extended periods of time. It seems that every time I am at the end of my own rope, He sends me someone or something to help me. This documentary that I am working on was one of those things.
I will continue to update this with PRACTICAL things that have helped me ..........
As Bishop Fulton J. Sheen would say ............ "God love you" ........
Thanks, ................ See-ya .....
TO BE CONTINUED ........
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