How Much Can You Handle?
I was talking to one of my friends just a few days ago, and she
got me thinking.
She was telling me about all the problems in her life and how
bad she was feeling and that it seemed that the universe just
kept piling problem after problem after problem on her and she
felt she was going to snap any day.
Yet she hasn't yet, and is still going strong, coping with it
all. In fact, it's not starting to ease off and get better.
This made me think. I had gone through periods in my life where
I thought the universe was ganging up against me and trying to
wear me into the ground. Yet I got through it all. I remember in
one of my worst times, a close friend of mine had a stroke and I
remember visiting her in hospital and thinking, "How is she
coping? I could never cope with that."
Then one night whilst watching the Discovery channel I put two
and two together and got forty two.
I love Archaeology, and living in England we are literally
swimming in it. In this particular show they were recreating how
Iron Age man would have made a sword.
The blacksmith, when asked why he was heating and then cooling
the blade said something very similar to this, "This process is
called tempering. It's where you stress the metal in order to
make it stronger."
As you can imagine, I perked up at this and realisation dawned
upon me.
The Blacksmith deliberately stresses the blade of a sword so he
can make it stronger.
Perhaps it is the same in life?
I then started to review some of the stress points that I had
had in my life, and then I realised that it was true. If I
hadn't have had these stresses then I would not be as strong as
I am. I wouldn't be the person I am if it wasn't for these "bad"
episodes in my life.
I began phoning around my friends, and asking them questions
about this and realised it was true for them.
We go through all sorts of trials in our life because we are
being tempered; made stronger for our purpose in life. I can now
look back at many of the once negative events in my life and see
how they have made me stronger and created the person I am today.
Another thing I realised whilst interviewing these people was
that we are never given more than we can handle. I couldn't
handle the stroke, yet my friend could. Perhaps she couldn't
have handled some of the things in my life.
You will undoubtedly have stresses in your life, but instead of
fighting them, embrace them as they are making you stronger.
Understand too that you are never given more than you can
handle, so that "insurmountable" challenge you are facing is in
fact something you can handle and overcome ... maybe just with a
change of perspective.