Current Life vs. Harsh Reality of Life & Hardships

Greetings!

Here in this post I’m gonna share about  insights obtained and reflected from Uncle Gerard Majella Dominic Lawrence’s (long name aye!) sharing during his visit to my place in KL. Uncle Gerard is a devout Christian and is very knowledgeable especially in the field of human resources and managing people. He is also a caring person who is full of passion for the youth. I came to know him through a church programme held last year and he is my soon-to-be Godfather who is going to support me in my journey of faith.  It’s indeed a blessing from God!

The present

The people living in the present – now especially the young ones, focus too much on the simplicity or enjoyment of life and most of them fail to be aware of how harsh reality is going to treat them in the future. The reality is beyond our imagination and our perception.

To illustrate, when MP3 players and all others cool gadgets first being introduced to the market, many of the youth thought that life’s just about music, MP3 and cool gadgets; or life is about something that excites and gives pleasure to them. When the time comes for them to step into reality, out from their study life, they will find out that the circumstances that happened to them during that stage of life are not of what they expected. There will be tons of deadline to be met for works assigned; quality and efficient work is expected from bosses; managing peers and colleagues would be extremely tough; being maltreated due to politics in workplace; being discriminated; difficulties in financing your life as debts start to build up and so on..Here we are looking at the perspective of working life. What about your personal life and family life? Your relationship with those around you? How are you going to manage and handle all kind of reactions from them? The list will never end. You’ll be facing music, pressures and commitments that comes from all directions towards your life – the harsh reality.

Most of the youth and the young ones still dwell in their comfort zone and thought that life’s gonna sail smoothly all the time. That is not the case as life’s unpredictable and they are dependent children of their parents or guardians, requiring support from them in handling matters and problems that have arisen in life. To bridge the ‘wonderland-reality gap shock’, it’s  time for the youth to be independent gradually and learn to manage the challenges that comes around in life.

Are you stressed, depressed or tired of your current state of life?  Ever wondered why hardships exist in reality?

Ironically, one should be thankful when he’s faced with hardships and difficulties. They exists in our life to shape us up to fight the harshness of reality. Through hardships we are able to be aware of our weaknesses, our incapability and incapacity of not only in doing things but also in managing ourselves both physically and emotionally. From this awareness, we learn and discover ways in improving ourselves and in overcoming the hardships we faced in life and from this awareness, comes motivation and the zeal to gear up ourselves to be more sustainable in future challenges.

This awareness in addition to the experience gained in overcoming the hardships  serve as an important survival element that makes us stronger and contribute to a well and effectively-lead life.

Thoughts to contemplate: When I was faced with difficulties and hardships, did I give in and escape? or did I go through it courageously? What were the results of my doing? Did I learn anything out of it that can be applied in the future?

Life is never complete without hardships. Life is of ups and down where there’s no ups when there’s no downs. Hardships add value and meaning to our life.

People come together to support and care for each other in times of hardships and those who have experienced hardships will try to help those who are suffering in times of hardships. Thus hardships bring about love.

Hardships make us realize the things and moments that we have taken for granted and therefore we begin to treasure every moment we live in this world. Thus, hardships bring about appreciation.

Through hardships the price we paid to overcome the hardships, the efforts and sacrifice we made, the feelings felt, expressed and shared among the people around us in overcoming hardships create memories of life and when we recall those memories and have understood that we have been through the hardships and the storm has subsided, we feel happy. Thus, hardships bring about joy.

All in all, life is enriched with meaning, new experiences and lessons through hardships and these experiences and lessons can then be passed on to others to make a difference in their life. Hardships are not that bad after all!

Well, life is short and life is an adventure, a journey of discovery. Why don’t we make our life as meaningful and as adventurous as possible?

Acknowledge the hardships faced and take them as spices that add flavors and bring adventure to your life and SMILE and always remember that there’s always a good thing in every bad thing. That’s God’s formulation when He created and designed the world and our life. We just need to know how to see the good in every bad thing and event that have happened in life and also discern the meaning of the behind the happenings.

Thoughts to contemplate: Christ endured His persecution which was full of hardships, challenges and pain out of His love for us with the ultimate purpose of bringing salvation to this world. Are we able to understand His hardships and pain? Can you see the good out of this?

Before I conclude, I would like to point out that if one is able to understand the hardships in life and accept them, putting God on top of everything and trust Him,  knowing that God is always by your side supporting you and enriching your life with the experience of challenges, hardships and pains, life will be happier and you can afford to smile even if you’re in a difficult position. God knows what’s best for us.

P/s: Feel free to share your insights in relation to this post if you have any. I greatly encourage you to share as the readers and me can learn and discover something out of your sharing.

That’s all folks!

Cheers!