Opportunity Knocks

August 11, 9:01 PMPortland Spiritual Growth ExaminerLaura McGuire

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“In this life you will have trouble.” Jesus Christ assured us of our life struggles in the Bible. Bad things happen to good people every day. Pain and suffering is just part of the human condition. Life is fraught with struggle. This state is common to man. We all go through hard things. Every one of us experiences some sort of pain, whether great or small. We each respond to these things in our individual ways. There is that saying, “Misery loves company.” At least we can all take comfort in the fact that we will never be alone in the painful parts of life.

With that being said, I must now touch on the more uncomfortable part of this concept. There is purpose in our pain. It can be so much easier to be miserable and sad than to take our pain and search for the lessons they hold. Trials and tribulations can be life’s greatest opportunities to grow. Without them we don’t truly get the experiences that make us human survivors. Sometimes the greatest strength and courage comes through the greatest strife. This is much easier to evaluate when you are not in the middle of tremendous pain. It can look very different when the pain is yours.

My family recently went on vacation, 10 driving hours away. When we left our home, we were burglarized. We had neighbors that discovered the break in. They ended up dealing with the police while we were far away. It was a shocking blow to say the least. There was nothing we could do but just stand by and let someone else take care of all the details of our lives being violated. My initial responses were anger, fear, repulsion (that someone went through my private things with a fine toothed comb), anxiety, helplessness. I could not help but ask the Universe “Why?” It took me some time and some space to begin to pick out the messages the universe was trying to send me. This was a huge wake up call for me.

I tend to look at things very symbolically. I believe that nothing is coincidence. I believe that if you pay attention carefully you can discern the information coming from the Spirit through life’s experiences. But as I dug through the symbols of my experience, I discovered that the message had nothing to do with a robbery. It took a lot of courage for me to listen to the message. I wanted instead to feel sorry for myself. I wanted revenge. I wanted to wallow in self pity and depression. But I began to realize the truth about my situation. That this was simply an opportunity to grow and learn. So I have decided to focus on the message and not the mess.

I have a question for you. What are your opportunities? What has the Universe handed you lately to get your attention? What lessons are waiting for you? If you pay attention to the struggles, if you dare to reach through the stress and pain you just might discover a nugget of truth hidden inside. I challenge you to look at your painful and difficult situations with this new perspective. Opportunity is knocking at your door. Are you going to open it?