Accepting the Forwards-Backwards Nature of Life

Sometimes we’re ahead and sometimes we’re behind,

At times we have vision and at times we’re blind,

What we can do when we need to survive,

Is have faith in God to give us the endurance to thrive.

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We all have bad days.

Intermingled through life is the same phenomenon. We tend to think we are alone in our bad days. We think we are the only ones who are devastated by the circumstances of life. It’s not because we are selfish in and of itself. We just don’t realise how normal to life crushing experiences are, especially in lives that are lived in the starkness of reality, i.e., without being medicated some way.

We have an opportunity, whilst we are enduring the bad days, to hold out hope that these, too, shall pass; that times we feel we are going backwards in life are actually times we grow most. And when we are making the most progress we are learning the least.

The forwards-backwards nature of life needs to be accepted. We don’t ever achieve such acceptance, however, without years invested in the learning, and we cannot learn when life is easy.

Given that hardship is the proving ground of faith, we have the opportunity of embracing the very thing that propels us toward maturity. But it is so tempting to take the easy route. We will always choose pleasure over pain.

Now if we can see the value in the hardship of a bad day, and the hope even in the midst of pain, it is a reward worthy of a heavenly reward. But we do not need to wait until we have arrived in heaven to receive such a heavenly reward. God rewards us here, in this life, for all the sacrifices made in the hardship of a bad day.

If we endure those times when we feel we are going backwards and regressing, God will bring even more meaning to those times when we are moving forwards, later.

If we are tolerant in seasons of regression, God will give us abundantly more contentment when we finally move into a season of progression.

To accept the forwards-backwards nature of life is the mature mindset, based in the wisdom of the ancients who have comprehended that life cannot be masterminded. Life can only be lived.

Know that at times we are ahead and at times we are behind. And the key to it all is that progress without learning is a folly. If we demand progress from ourselves we will reveal ourselves as poor students. Yet if we accept that progress comes in ebbs and flows we are likelier to succeed and live happier in life.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.