Life is beautiful and wonderful yet, it is important to note that life is not fair. I often tell my friends that life has never been fair and it will never be fair. Our consolation is that God is forever faithful. If we focus on God’s faithfulness and not life’s unfairness, we will eventually flourish no matter the number of times we fail.
Charles Spurgeon said, ‘I owe more to the fire, and the hammer, and the file, than to anything else in my Lord’s workshop.’
A lot of times, when we say someone is on fire, we really think we are praising such a person for being passionate and powerful but we don’t pay attention to the fire he or she may be passing through. Before a flower can become beautiful, it must have survived scourging sunshine and terrible raindrops.
Pain is part of the party of life. However, every pain has a pleasant purpose, the problem is that we sometimes focus on our pains so much that we don’t even want to believe that something beautiful can come out of our painful experiences. It is so interesting that no one wants to die but they want to be in paradise.
Fire is one of the most significant elements on earth, it is a symbol of passion, power and purity. These three qualities (passion, power and purity) are desirable but the process of attaining them is sometimes undesirable. The reason why there are a lot of suicide cases in recent times is because there are a lot of people in this generation who cannot stand the fire, flame and flood of life.
I once read a research paper on how the sun in the sky derives its capacity to shine. I found out that the sun is actually a collection of massive gas especially hydrogen and helium, it keeps shining because it keeps burning itself. So if you have seen a gas explosion before, you can imagine what the sun does to itself in order to generate power. The sun warms the earth, provides light for us to see and also contributes vitally to the survival of plants and humans. All of these would not have been possible if the sun does not burn itself.
A lot of people wants to become stars but they don’t want to feel heat. Some kinds blessings and beauty require fire, flood and flame, just as raw gold must go through heat to get refined.
Victory does not come by chance, it comes by making the right choices and turning challenges into opportunities to make positive changes.
So how can one cope and conquer in the furnace of life.
1) Have a connection with the refiner which is God: God wants to help you survive through the fire and flood of life. Learn to lean on Him.
2) Be in a community of encouragers: if your friends are not your mentors, they will be your tormentors. Always be in the midst of people who see, say and seek good things for you.
3) Watch what you read, view and listen to: the kind of books you read, movies you watch and songs you listen to will go a long way to either encourage you or damage your confidence.
In conclusion, life will always knock you down, it’s up to you to pick yourself up with prayers and keep pursuing your dreams. Life will only knock out the man who stops fighting to stand. Successful people are not people without pains but those who keep converting their pains to gains.
Those who focus on gains will eventually flourish but those who focus on pains may perish except they change. Courage requires change in perspective, conquering in life requires prayers, passion, persistency, confidence and positive connection.
© Adeleke Adeite 2019
Adeleke Adeite 