When is Enough, Enough? | #MyFridayStory No. 302

In life, there are times when you’ll ask: When will these challenges end?

If you have lived an entire and colourful life, you will have had your share of disappointments and failures along with your many victories and success stories. We all have them in equal quantities. Be careful about complaining about the load of wood he is carrying being lighter than yours. When you throw the two piles on the ground and you see his pile of wood next to yours, you’ll happily pick up your own again and be on your way.

I started experiencing the benefits of facing challenges and using them as an opportunity to transform and grow when I was 42 years old. For the past 18 years, I’ve been through great transformation and the one common element has been the many challenges I’ve had to overcome. It was important that I emerged from a challenge having learned and gained inner strength. I am a man of God. God has carried me through every situation, not that I should not suffer, but that I can make it through the suffering.

There’s a neat trick that some motivational speakers like to use before they start their session. It's to get the audience’s attention and to get them to be at ease. The facilitator asks the audience to stand. Then they are asked to reach for the sky as high as they can. While everyone is on their tippy toes, stretching as high as they can, the facilitator asks, “Is that the highest you can reach?” Everyone shouted back, “Yes!” He then says, “Now I want you all to reach just a little bit higher.” And sure enough, everyone had a little more to give than what they thought they had in the first place.

In the 1950s, Curt Richter, a professor at Johns Hopkins, did a famous drowning rats psychology experiment. This experiment, though cruel, demonstrated the power of hope and resilience in overcoming difficult situations. The basis of the experiment was to place rats in a bucket of water and see how long they would survive before drowning. Although they are good swimmers in the wild, the rats all drowned within a few minutes. Professor Richter decided to continue with the experiment. This time, he put the rat into the water and observed him until he started to flounder and drown. The professor then removed the rat from the water and held and comforted him. He then placed the rat back in the water. This time, the rat swam for a long time without getting exhausted and drowning.

Human suffering is necessary for us to reach deeper into our being and through quiet contemplation and reflection, to discover our purpose. But it is through the hope of creating a better world that we shed our baggage to live a more Franciscan life. God has helped me to use the challenges I’ve faced to bring me closer to Him. Although I can find myself wondering, “When is enough, enough? God’s reply always comes back: Creating a better world where people feel loved and cherished is not going to be easy. But I am with you. Always have been. Always will be.

Have an awesome weekend and please remember to be generous! ??

As always, thanks for reading ??

To receive #MyFridayStory every week,?please join any?Tribe below:

• Via Email
• Via LinkedIn Groups
• Via LinkedIn Newsletter
• Medium.com
• WhatsApp Broadcast List — Leave a DM with your Mobile Number to be added.

?