Understanding an event in one’s life is best understood with the benefit of time. One might think one knows if an event is good or bad, helpful, or destructive. Experience has been an interesting teacher. Along the way, my position has changed. From the initial black and white perspective, I find I no longer know what an event will mean. There are multiple keys which can be indicators, depending on how I apply them.
Every event has an ability to instruct. When I was very young, I was not listening to the events in my life. I was confident in my view. The confidence was high enough, one could say I was blind to my actions and the lessons life offered me. Consequently, I repeated my mistakes and often refused to change my pattern of behavior. With time, I began to see life lessons, hear the teaching whispers, and reflect on how they could be used. I find myself looking to life lessons as Divinity’s bespoke gift, useful and applicable, especially the difficult ones. The guidance in days past remains true for me today; “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides.” (James 1.2)
Events are, in themselves neither good nor bad. Any measurement must include more than the immediate. Outcomes, insights, and reflection from an event can change the course of one’s life. In the full measure of an event, one can determine if one found that it proved to be useful. Painful and joyful, easy or hard, chosen or inflicted, every statement can be made about how life touches us. If one goes through pain to get to a better place, one will view the pain as a price one willingly pays for the outcome.
Events have a place in a greater story. There are times when I struggle to see anything beyond the event. In my best moments, I slow down to a point of stillness and let the event simply be. When I do, Hope takes a stand with me with Courage joining in.
