How do we define struggle? Is it a determined effort to hold our heads above submerging water? Is it a desperate gasping for breath when oxygen in our lungs is running into a decrescendo? Can we call it bruising and battering strive to survive the harsh and hard weather life is throwing at us? Are we permitted to define it as a man’s sweeping surge to succeed where failures run rampant? I say “yes” to all, and more. Struggle is boisterous belligerence with both visible and invisible environmental, territorial, and human factors. It is fighting a war you must win and not be worn out if there’s in you the definitive intestinal desire to live life and live it more abundantly.
Nations struggle, and so do families. Businesses struggle, and the global economy is not left out of its grip. Of the truth, the entire landscape across planet earth is a haven of struggle. In the case of individuals, struggle is personal, psychological, spiritual, and emotional. It is an obnoxious obstacle, and a charring challenge exacted on man by circumstances beyond his control. Struggle is a strenuous or determined effort to break through a brick wall of bruising situations in the face of difficult opposition.
Some people survive struggle while many are strangled by the same. It’s a roller-coaster of happiness and sadness; of pain and pleasure; and of good and bad times. A man is happy today and then slips into funny feelings the next day. Friends, for as long as we have the breath of life, we get a taste of life’s struggle. Nobody kneels on the altar of prayer requesting pain from heaven. It’s like life in a steaming hot pressure cooker, who salivates after it? Between and betwixt, some struggles are necessary and may be the best thing that can ever happen to us. Do you know that the pain that struggle brings may be a necessitous life teaching tool? Life is a classroom where knowledge is daily imparted, and destinies are frequently impacted. Life’s daily lessons are nourishing and teach continually without paucity.
Life often teaches humans new perspectives, and everything that life teaches is an opportunity to gather experiences in all layers of existence. This simply means that life does not stop teaching things anew and afresh. What it taught yesterday may be taught again today as a reinforcement of some sacrosanct truths. And what it teaches today may be completely different from what it has ever taught. My friends, struggle may be your good teacher.
I believe that liberation often comes from the womb of tribulation, and testimonies often emerge from the spines of torturous tests. I believe in much gain after much pain, and a bundle of joy eventually comes from a bundle of hydra-headed struggles of life that men go through. I believe that joy comes in the morning after an enduring weeping that sweeps through the night. I believe in rising after falling, and breaking through after a breakdown. I believe in laughter after weeping; singing after heavy sighing; and dancing after bouts of pain pangs. I believe in the purpose and will of God for every man and woman, no matter how tough life seems to be right now. I believe that your best days are ahead of you, and your worst days are far behind.
Thomas Alva Edison was an American mogul credited with inventions such as the first practical incandescent light bulb and the phonograph. The savvy businessman once ran into life’s struggle and its ensuing pain. It was a gory experience with one of his businesses. On December 10, 191, Edison walked to his plant in West Orange, New Jersey, as 10 buildings on site had been engulfed in flames. The chemical-fuelled inferno was too huge to be quickly put out by the swift-responding men of the local fire department. Edison and his 24-year-old son, Charles, watched as the huge plant quickly became rubbles of waste and piles of ashes. Edison said to his son: “Go get your mother and all her friends. They’ll never see a fire like this again…..We’ve just got rid of a lot of rubbish”. Edison later told a local newspaper: “Although I am over 67 years old, I’ll start all over again tomorrow.”
The next morning, Edison immediately began rebuilding without firing any of his employees. After the damage assessment, Edison lost $919,788 (about $50m in today’s dollars). The flames had consumed years of priceless records and prototypes, and his plant’s insurance covered only about a third of the total damage. In about three weeks, part of the plant kicked off working again, thanks to a sizable loan he got from his friend, Henry Ford. Edison and his team went on to make almost $10m in revenue the following year. Edison mastered his emotions. That helped him to begin again. Struggle and pain taught Edison something because struggle is a good teacher. Edison could have cried himself into a state of depression, but he smiled through the chaos and tragedy and prepared to start all over again.
In our moments of struggle, let us be open to learning from divinity the lessons thrown at us to learn. You will be surprised how men and women are dispatched our ways to help douse the raging fire of torment and struggle. Are you fighting to keep your head above the submerging waters of life? You need not ferret. Every season of struggle is just like a nine-month pregnancy with an expected delivery date. I have seen, met, and heard about hard-working people whose hard work never worked at the first attempt. I know people who were in close proximity to opportunities to get wealth but never did at the first strike. I know people who have struggled to attain a position of power and influence but never did on the initial try. But later, the struggles they had to go through brought forth sweet testaments for them. Why must yours be an exception?
- X-@folaojotweet
