Tonight, I am thinking about Dr. Jordan Peterson’s theory that most of us do everything possible to live a life void of catastrophic events.
He thinks that most people have an unrealistic assumption that living a life without hardships would prove that they have lived a truly happy life.
He proposes that instead of avoiding catastrophe, we “should do everything we can to have the courage to ‘bear up’ under the weight of the catastrophic events of life.”
He insists this will help us experience “true happiness” because we will be self-satisfied because of the amazement of having made it through the most challenging parts of life, insisting that we would be stronger because we taught ourselves how to live through and despite the chaos.
Seeing the devastation that so many of my fellow WNC residents and I have experienced this past week has brought up past memories and wounds.
When I was a child, I experienced not only one but two house fires in our family home, in which we lost everything we owned both times.
Later in my life, when the weather phenomenon of El Niño decided to sit above our region, my and my husband’s dream home flooded five times in five years, and again, I lost everything I owned.
So, as I survey the landscape of my past, I would say that I agree with Dr. Peterson’s assessment, I am most definitely stronger today and more satisfied with my life because I was forced to learn the secret of bearing up under the burden of disaster and catastrophe.
The secret to what I learned lies in the poem “Footprints in the Sand” that I currently have displayed on my bathroom wall.
I had to learn to allow the Lord my God to carry me through those horrific events when I could not carry myself and He is the one that gave me strength to stand.
If I could offer some sort of comfort to anyone who is having to learn to stand under the weight of disaster, it would be this:
Because I know who holds the future; I know who is carrying us tonight. It is the Lord God Almighty!
He is giving us strength that we did not know we had!
He will help us bear up under the weight of it and eventually realize we are stronger because of it.
-Angel Diane-Author/Speaker
“But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:31 NKJV
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