Life is Hard, But That’s a Good Thing

Anyone old enough to read this post is old enough to have had things happen in their lives that will most likely make them think that life is hard. Well, I agree – life is hard! But that’s a good thing!

I’ve thought life is hard for a long time, and I used to think that was a bad thing. After all, I’ve had my fair share of difficult situations in my own life and I didn’t enjoy any of them! Everything from a bully on the playground, to my truck being stolen, to finding out that I wouldn’t be graduating from college with the rest of my class because I still needed to take one more class to finish my degree requirements, to getting through the Marine Corps Officer Candidate School (boot camp for officers), to being laid-off from my job unexpectedly – twice, to the many frustrations and difficulties of relationships and a new marriage, to having people in my family diagnosed with cancer (two of whom ultimately died because of it), and countless other examples.

But so what? I’m sure many of you have had similar difficulties, and unfortunately I’m sure many you have had even more difficult and worse things happen to you. Everyone has difficult things happen to them, much more often than any of them would like.  And when I have complained about this in the past, usually my friends and family would listen to me and try to give me helpful advice. Some of the most common responses was “It’ll be okay” or “just remember that no matter how bad you think you have it, there’s always someone out there who has it worse.” In fact I still remember a similar piece of advice I heard only once but stuck with me for some reason: “I used to complain about having no shoes, until I met a man with no feet.” And while both of those are good pieces of advice, they didn’t do much to make me feel any better about having a tough life.

Lately I’ve found myself thinking about this subject in a more in-depth way, and what I’ve come up with has not only changed the way I look at difficult situations in my life, but it has even made me come to appreciate them. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t try to get more of them to happen or even enjoy them when they do happen. But even though I don’t enjoy them, I can still appreciate them. Let me tell you why…