I don’t know about you, but I get tired of hearing bad news—especially when it involves me and/or my loved ones. However, I have to remind myself–that’s the price of living, and death is the only other option. Since we live in a fallen world, no bad thing should surprise us and no good thing should go unappreciated. But just because we expect bad things that doesn’t always make it easier to accept. You might expect a root-canal, but that doesn’t mean you will enjoy it.. However if we see that in the end the pain proved to be profitable, in a strange way, you can say the pain was a privilege. Make sense?
Let’s look at it another way. As a parent I consider it one of the greatest blessings in life to have children, yet it has been hard and painful at times. You can’t have one without the other. Children spell TROUBLE. They bring tremendous pleasure, but also plenty of pain. For me and most parents, the pleasure out weighs the pain. I’ll choose my children over a care-free life any day. They are worth whatever problems the cause.
I love life! I don’t enjoy everything in life, but the experience of living is worth whatever I have to endure to have the experience. When I say,”I love life” there are many things about it that I love. At the top of the list is the pleasure of life with my wife and family, and the privilege of serving the Lord. Although it is sometimes hard being a husband, a father, and a preacher, the happiness it brings far outweighs the hardness that goes along with it.
Maybe it doesn’t work for you, but it helps me greatly to think about these things. I have to focus on my privilege of living so as to not complain about the the problems that accompany it. Whether I spend my life being contented or complaining is determined by whether I view life as a privilege or a problem. How do you see life? The choice is yours–no one can make it for you. If you choose contentment no one can take it from you–you have to give it up. What will you choose?
There is so much riding on your answer I am reluctant to end this article. I feel like begging and pleading, doing everything in my power to sway your opinion. I wish I could say that I always have the perfect attitude and serve as an ideal example, but I am miles from perfect. Please don’t let my failures dissuade you from doing the right thing. I know life is tough and some of you are going through deep waters and dark valleys, and you are weary and worried. I just want to remind you that the sunshine comes after the rain, the mountain top after the valley, and pleasure after pain. Like the song says,”It will be worth it all”. It really will–you have God’s word on it. Don’t ever give up!
We find pleasure by seeing our problems as privileges because they are profitable!
