How do I interpret and deal with life's challenges - Essay Example

Interpreting and Dealing with Life’s Challenges College How did you respond to aloss, a personal challenge or a period of difficulty or suffering in your life? Prior to my full knowledge of God, I must confess that it used to be extremely hard to cope with a period of difficulty particularly since, back then, I often felt bitter inside, insecure, and very much lacking of inner peace. Those were the days when I relied upon my own strength and the sole aid of my friends in early youth who merely knew how to handle troubles by engaging in diversions of different forms.

According to them, I should learn how to seek ways to forget my problems and laugh them off to spare myself of the stresses. For some time, I chose to respond as such and though it took in effect, I could not help feeling empty still. Then I figured that it was mostly brought by the absence of fulfillment each time I preferred not to confront my crisis or each painful truth of the moment that, if acknowledged, could have taught a useful lesson toward personal growth. At this stage, I recall the courage of Ballou, a young soldier who was caught in the dilemma of deciding between his love for family and his love for country yet he went after the choice that would serve a greater cause (Anne, 2008).

Whatever troubles that come my path now, hence, I would simply lift a prayer to God and ask for courage that I may overcome the fear of facing them or riding a wave of change. 2) In your view, are such times of suffering, loss, etc. a judgment or punishment for our own actions as suggested by some belief or religious traditions? By personal experience as a Muslim, God allows his children to have times of suffering to deal with in life as a test of faith and a means of purification from wrongdoings or iniquities of the past.

Rather than hardcore judgment or punishment, every time we suffer or lose something, we may view such incident as an opportunity given by God for us to improve on doing good deeds that are pleasing after His sight and are capable of strengthening our spirituality and personal relationship with Him. So, once we become pure again after having struggled our way out of sins committed due to weakness of human nature, we become confident that our transformed selves would have more to give or conduct by virtue of faith and righteousness that reflects through our thoughts and actions. 3) Is God involved in determining who suffers?

If so, how? If not, what is God’s involvement in our challenges and sufferings? Yes, God is involved in determining who suffers. Though we are unable to comprehend how God exactly manages to work his wonders in our lives, we are certain that His ways are mysterious. I believe that God truly loves us unconditionally especially those to whom He designates ill fate or misery for God desires that they be cleansed thoroughly of all evil and return to Him worthy of blessings and genuine happiness.

Apparently, suffering is God’s way of drawing his creation near Him and the warmth of His love so if a man suffers, such man is led to a special enlightenment or wisdom where an understanding of God spontaneously comes to him. By gradually being conscious of the presence of the divine entity during hardships, men are able to recognize the overwhelming power and kindness of God as well as the fruits that could be reaped at the end of suffering. The life of Job concretely attests to this as a man who, according to the Holy Bible, had been righteous all his life and whose faith in God never failed, expressing “If I have walked with falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit—let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless--” (New International Version, Job 31. 5 – 6). 4) Does forgiveness have a place in responding to life’s adversities, especially the wrongs done to us? It does. In my case, I realize that the more I give thought and understanding to the shortfall of others, whether big or small, the more that I feel lighter deep within.

Having a forgiving heart is equivalent to training oneself to acquire the ability of widening perspective and of becoming a more joyful and a more flexible individual with a profound sense of compassion, in the process. Psychiatrist and neurologist Victor Frankl himself had been able to overcome hatred toward their adversaries, the Nazis, in ‘The Holocaust’ and saw everyone on the same plane. This principle granted him an access to relief from distress as it literally took place that, beyond any necessary contempt for the oppressors, he even claimed justification for the human roles played during their deplorable situation.

As such, on stating ‘After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright’ he meant to dissolve the idea behind the prevailing inequality and injustice. 5) Is it possible to find meaning for our lives in times of suffering, especially when the suffering is experienced by those innocent of its causes? Through ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, Victor Frankl argues that every man possesses an intrinsic yet originally unconscious inclination to set out on a quest for his life’s meaning and this empirical finding affirms that it is indeed possible for a man to search for life’s meaning despite severe miserable conditions to which even the innocent ones are subjected.

By citing concrete instances of his excruciating encounters of ruthlessness and inhumanity in the concentration camp, Victor had been able to identify how psychological reactions by way of depersonalization can lead to extreme depression or disillusionment especially when the person is chiefly bounded by the earlier perceptions of a society set before him. Based upon his response to personal experience however, Victor managed to transform or deflect from such course of influence and opted to move borders of narrow psychological realization onto the freedom of choice which eventually brought him to an acquaintance of spiritual faith in understanding that there certainly is a reason for every existing occurrence. V. Frankl suggests in ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ that it is possible for a man to reach an extent of gaining control over circumstances once the ‘meaning’ is found and as he chooses to dwell in constant faith and not be impacted by the external conditions.

A man of faith who through logotherapy fully understands and appreciates the essence in the established ‘meaning’ hence, would not easily fall into self-pity, fits of rage, anxiety, or any other forms of adverse human nature. Works Cited Anne (2008). “A Letter to His Wife, 1861 by Sullivan Ballou p. 444.” Anne’s Thoughts. Retrieved from http://anne117.blogspot.com/2008/09/letter-to-his-wife-1861-by-sullivan.html on April 16, 2013. Frankl, Viktor E. (1984). Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy. 3rd ed. New York : Simon & Schuster.

Holy Bible. Book of Job, Old Testament. New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986.