Life is a struggle

This life is hills and valleys. We know life is not easy,  nor should it be. Man was built for struggle. Resistance is how we build strength. 

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Recovery is a process of decisions podcast. This is Trent Thomas, your certified peer support specialist. Tonight's topic is life is a struggle. I once used a parable that this life is hills and valleys, ups and downs. And a gentleman replied to me that that statement reminded him of a EKG, Ups and Downs. I said, You're absolutely right. And the converse flat line is the end of life or no life at all. You see, life is a constant struggle. This struggle is absolutely necessary for the functioning of man. Without struggle, you have no purpose or direction. In fact, without it, you have no built-in resistance or reason to continue on. If everything was handed to you, you would lose the ability to walk, to stand, much less run and form direction and a purpose. See, our muscles are built strong by resistance. You build your muscles by lifting weights. Imagine if you sat in a seat and had food and water and everything you needed to live brought to you. Your muscles would soon atrophy, meaning waste away or degenerate from lack of use. See, where struggle comes, strength, faith, perseverance, hope, goals, direction, meaning. The very ground you stand on is enveloped with gravity, which forces resistance on your entire body. Every time we move, it is the muscles that must fight against this resistance, this struggle, where blood vessels are strengthened and grow, where tendons are stretched, joints are lubricated to allow frictionless movement between bones in our body, all through the resistance or struggle of our natural environment. Man was built to struggle. See, easy goes contrary to what man was intended to undergo for life. Yes, life is a struggle, and no, it is not easy, and nor should it be. This life is hills and valleys, ups and downs. This conquered, the fact that we can go through the next hill and valley is witnessed because we went through the last hill. And it was the God of our understanding that helped get us through that last hill. See, we live in a world that is produced and directed at God's permission. We just have to play our part. This world was built on struggle. This is why we have faith. See, faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for yet unseen. Faith is a power greater than us that will deliver us from adversity and struggle. This same adversity permits us to gain perseverance, which is persistence in something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. Struggle gives us strength of character. Just as muscles are developed through the resistance of lifting weights, character is the mental and moral qualities distinctive to a person. Thus, mental and moral qualities are developed through struggle. No, life is not easy, and nor should it be. No struggle, no faith, no struggle, no perseverance, no struggle, no hope, no struggle, no belief in a power greater than ourselves, no struggle, no hope, no struggle, no plans for a better future, no struggle, no strength of character, no struggle, no belief that we can overcome anything, no struggle, no ability to avoid pitfalls, no struggle, no wisdom, no struggle, no legacy to pass on to future generations, no struggle, no will to live. Without struggle, life would lose its meaning and purpose. Without struggle, life would not be worth living. No life ain't easy, and nor should it be. This has been Trent Thomas, and the recovery is a process of decisions podcast.