Don’t Be Discouraged: The Story is Not Over Yet

What is the purpose of Life? There is no answer to this question when it is intended in the great cosmic sense - as in why does Life exist? Or where does Life come from? Life has no reason for being. It is beyond all justifications. Life simply Is and that is all. There can be no arguing this point. You can accept it or not. It is what it is. What is the purpose of my life? Well this is an entirely different query altogether and this question does have an answer. The one size fits all reason for each of us (expressions of Life) being here is - to learn; to grow in our understanding of ourselves. The lessons we live through are sometimes quite challenging. I know it’s probably not a revelation to you that growing does have its pains. But you should also understand that there is never any reason for you to be discouraged by these pains. Today’s trials are destined to be tomorrow’s enlightenments. Difficult situations arise in your experience to either make you aware of your strengths or to inspire you to walk in a new direction. Anytime you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by the daunting circumstances coming at you in life – stop, take a breath, step back within yourself and just remember that this story you’re living in, in this moment is far from over yet. There is indeed much more to come, many more moments to experience. What you’re going through now is only one scene of a much bigger storyline. And there will be more to see if you just keep moving. Move through it. The difficulty you find yourself in may seem to have roots so deep as to be practically immovable, but even if it (the source of your difficulty) may not be moved easily, you have the power to move away from it effortlessly. All you have to do is let go. Stop struggling with it. Move on. You may have heard it said before that the only way to get to where you want to go in life is to start from where you are. There is nothing to be gained but misery in lamenting your fortune of not being someplace other than where you are. You have to accept where you are before you can change it. So as long as this is the case why not make a habit of looking at your experience in life with a spirit of gratefulness. It’s kind of similar to the old wisdom, if you’re going to be here then you might as well make the most of it. Gratitude is the great proliferator of life. In honoring the blessing in your life situation instead of the faults, you undergo growth in your experience and growth in your spiritual development. By contrast, every moment spent in lamentation, every moment spent in worrying leaves you paralyzed. And when you wallow in the moment of your suffering the pain you feel from it lingers and compounds. Life’s little stings, which are meant to motivate our spiritual growth, don’t usually hurt as bad as we ultimately make it hurt for ourselves by refusing to let go of the thing that is stinging us. The pain you suffer will move when you move. When you stop holding onto it. When you resolve to go forward and actually see how the story you’re living evolves from the mess it may seem to be now. Try to think of it this way. Have you ever seen the movie What’s Love Got To Do With It, the movie based on Tina Turner’s life? There’s a scene in that movie that always makes me unnerved, the scene where Tina is raped by her husband Ike in the middle of her recording their song Nutbush. Sitting through that part of the movie is agony. And if I never watched beyond that point of the story I probably wouldn’t be able to stand this film. But as it turns out, there was more to Tina’s story than that tragic experience in her life. It’s a story full of great themes about finding one’s strength; growing wise; letting go and starting over again; enduring to see the sunshine that follows the storm… But I never would have got to those parts, those warm feeling good scenes that have made What’s Love Got To Do With It a choice movie for me, had I hit the pause during that one disturbing scene and refused to watch the rest of the story unfold. But isn’t this what we do all the time in real life. We find ourselves in a situation that unnerves us, makes us fearful, and we hit the pause button and stay stuck in that moment of our trepidation. We don’t allow ourselves to see the story we’re living in through for fear of what else might come? It’s like we’re standing on a bed of hot coals, too afraid to take the next step because we’re immobilized by the thought of, “what if it’s worse?” But the longer you idle in this same spot the more unbearable your situation will grow to be. Know this, that the next step you take may indeed be painful, but be assured that it won’t be as painful as what you’ll suffer if you don’t keep moving your feet. So whether the trial you find yourself faced with is the equivalent of a bed of hot coals (which can be moved through rather quickly), or a far reaching desert (which will take some time to travel through), the encouragement we can take from this is identical. That this too shall pass. And as long is you keep on keeping on, this too shall pass more quickly. Hope feeds on motion. So keep it moving.