“No man ought to lay a cross upon himself, or to adopt tribulation; but if a cross or tribulation come upon him, let him suffer it patiently, and know that it is good and profitable for him,” so said Martin Luther.
That statement came to my mind while reading an e-mail forwarded to me by a friend. I really don’t know who wrote the story below but I believe it has some lessons to convey which would benefit anyone.
A man – in a tizzy – came to God. “God, can I ask you something?” the man inquired. God answered affirmatively.
The man wanted assurance: “Promise you won’t get mad?” God told him: “I promise.”
“Why did you let so much stuff happen to me today?” the frustrated man asked. God wondered: “What do you mean?”
The man started his litany of complains: “Well I woke up late. My car took forever to start. At lunch, they made my sandwich wrong and I had to wait. On the way home, my phone went dead, just as I picked up a call.
And to top it all off, when I got home, I just wanted to soak my feet in my foot massager and relax, but it wouldn’t work.
Nothing went right today! Why did you do that?”
It was God’s turn to explain. “Well let me see,” He said, “the death angel was at your bed this morning and I had to send one of the other angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that.
”I didn’t let your car start because there was a drunk driver on your route that might have hit you if you were on the road. The first person who made your sandwich today was sick and I didn’t want you to catch what they have, I knew you couldn’t afford to miss work.
“Your phone went dead because the person that was calling was going to give a false witness about what you said on that call, I didn’t even let you talk to them so you would be covered.
“Oh and that foot massager, it had a short that was going to throw out all of the power in your house tonight. I didn’t think you wanted to be in the dark.”
The man was ashamed hearing those words. “I’m sorry God,” he said. God answered, “Don’t be sorry, just learn to trust me in all things, the good and the bad. And don’t doubt that my plan for your day is always better than your plan.”
Edmund Burke was right when he said, “He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.”
To which Max Lerner added, “The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.”
Some people consider adversity an enemy. An unknown author penned these words: “If you have some enemies, you are to be congratulated, for no man ever amounted to much without arousing jealousies and creating enemies.
Your enemies are a very valuable asset as long as you refrain from striking back at them, because they keep you on the alert when you might become lazy.” Dr. Jose Rizal puts it in a different perspective: “We need criticism to keep us awake.”
To others, adversity is sort of a friend. Norman Vincent Peale said it succinctly: “The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” In Snow on the Wind, Hugh Miller wrote:
“Problems are only opportunities with thorns on them.”
Leslie Grossman stated, “When you’re feeling your worst, that’s when you get to know yourself the best.” In his Literary Essays, James Russell Lowell pointed out, “Mishaps are like knives that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.”
There is a legend about a German nobleman who had a castle in the hills along the Rhine. Being a music lover, he stretched some wires between the towers of his castle with the hope that the winds might vibrate them and make music. But the gentle Rhineland breezes produced no sounds.
Then one night a great thunderstorm swept up the valley. Furious winds beat against the castle. Even the mountains roundabout seemed to shake.
The baron opened a sheltered window to watch the progress of the storm and – to his astonishment! – he heard the trains of beautiful music. Now those wires were humming like guitar strings. It had required a windstorm to bring out the music!
The same is true with our lives. “God uses suffering as a whetstone, to make men sharp with,” Henry Ward Beecher reminds.
For comments, write me at henrytacio@gmail.com
