Life brings many unexpected, often unwelcome events. Are these punishments, lessons, or opportunities?
Sometimes life presents us with situations that make us feel we're being tested. At times the situation is so severe that we may feel more thwarted than tested. Have you ever wondered, "Why would God do this to me? Is this a punishment?" Some people feel life is a series of lessons to learn. Could life be a set of opportunities to experience?
At times when the opposite of what I expect to show up appears I feel that I'm being tested or punished. I recently had just this experience. I picked a writing theme for October as I do for each month. The theme is Tranquility. I wrote a couple of articles describing how to feel tranquil in the midst of chaotic circumstances and guess what happened? Chaos popped into my life.
With a major presentation to prepare for, some consulting work due, and several articles to write for my two venues, my computer froze with the infamous blue screen. This happens infrequently, and when it does I usually recover quickly by re-starting the system. But this time restarting didn't work. Nothing I tried seemed to work.
Finally I re-loaded my operating system knowing that I had a recent backup which would restore all my critical files. You guessed it--the restore failed. Apparently my hard drive became flaky and the most recent backup was corrupted. I lost nearly all of my critical files for the past six months.
Granted, these problems were not life threatening nor did they involve major property damage, but you get the picture. As I devoted the month to helping people find tranquility in their lives, I had the opportunity to have my own tranquility experience. This type of thing has happened before--many times before. Not this exact scenario, but something eerily similar.
When I set upon a path of experience it seems that situations arise which, at first glance, seem to thwart that experience. But think of it this way. What if God is sending me just the right circumstances I need to have the experience I desire?
Without the circumstances that encourage turmoil, I can't really experience tranquility. So these events came at just the right time to allow me the opportunity to be tranquil amidst non-tranquil circumstances.
Now I have the opportunity to follow my own advice. Can I remain tranquil? Will I meditate, relax, exercise, and do what I can to solve the problems I'm facing without anger, self-pity, fret, or worry? It turns out I'm handling it pretty well from an emotional standpoint--the technical aspects of data recovery are another story. I put together a workable system so I can meet my obligations and have ordered a new computer, all the while remaining fairly calm--perhaps even tranquil.
To top off this interesting set of circumstances, my Inspiration for this week was the Serenity Prayer. Coincidence? I don't think so. Do you?
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
