Life’s Like This — When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better. Life can be so unpredictable. Dreams that your life was built on could be dashed by circumstances beyond your control and leave you feeling depressed and without a purpose in life. There is no way to tell when and if your dreams may be fulfilled. The best we can do is to be prepared for the unexpected and to realize that life happens and that despite our best efforts to fulfill life goals, that sometimes our plans don’t turn out as we had hoped for. And when our dreams don’t materialize, we have a choice — do we give up on our dreams and spend the rest of our lives complaining about what could have been, or do we chart a new course, one that is full of hope for the future and that serves as a springboard for a new sense of purpose for our lives.
Quite often we chart a negative course. We see the future as bleak and then buy into all the negativism that seemingly surrounds us, and all to often, fail to look at positive changes we can make in our lives that can impact our self-esteem, and perhaps more importantly, the lives of others. As much as we may have regrets that our lives had not turned out as we had hoped, we have the opportunity to transform our lives into something that is meaningful and that can provide the sense of accomplishment and purpose we all long to have for our lives. My older brother is a source of inspiration and hope for me. Despite the ravages of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that came about as a result of two tours of duty in Vietnam, he has found within himself the courage to channel his energy into service to his fellow veterans. For several years, he has devoted countless hours of service by helping veterans file claims for veteran’s benefits that they had earned. He does this without compensation, without any expectation of recognition, but simply out of a deep love and appreciation for the men and women who have served our country.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a veteran of war — if you have lived long enough, you are a veteran of life. And if you are like me, you have lived through countless disappointments and trials of life that have tested your character and personal resolve. The trials of life are unique to each of us; they can impact every area of our lives — personal, education, career, social, health, and spiritual. And when these trials occur, the toll it takes on us can be devastating. But with faith and hope, we can turn what was once perceived as failure and what once consumed our energy and caused us to languish in despair, into boundless joy and hope for the future. The best way to undergo this transformation is by giving of ourselves to others. God did not mean for us to go through life wrapped up in a cocoon that isolates us from others. His desire is for us to live our lives in ways that we can be of service to others; to enrich their lives and to give them hope and faith for a future that can be rich with unlimited Blessings. But to do that, we need to shed the shackles of self-deception; that self-talk that perpetuates a negative attitude, and that tendency to fall into a state of self-pity. The dreams we once had may have been dashed by unforeseeable events in our lives, but we don’t need to allow those events to dictate our future happiness. We all have the power within us to rise above even the darkest tragedy in our life. All we have to do, is to tap into the bank of courage that is waiting for us to draw our strength from; to ask God to be that source of strength and ray of hope that can give our lives new meaning and purpose. And when we do that, when we keep our focus on God’s plan and not our own, then our purpose and reason for living will become evident.
Life's Like This 