Adversity Can Be Opportunity “if”

By: Richard Mirpuri

 

Once there was a young woman who complained to her father about her life and how hard things were for her. Adversity was overwhelming her, and she wanted to give up. As he listened, her father filled three pots with water and brought them to a boil. Into the first he put carrots, into the second he put eggs, and into the third he put ground coffee beans. He let them simmer and cool, then asked her to feel the now-squishy carrots and examine the hardened eggs. Then he told her to taste the rich drink made from coffee beans and plain water. “When you face adversity, how do you respond?” he asked. “Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?” Life is filled with adversities. We can be squashed by it like a carrot in boiling water. We can allow it to make us hard like a hard-boiled egg. Or we can make the best of it like brewed coffee beans and just enjoy the drink. None of us can choose the kinds of difficulties and challenges we go through in life, but we can choose how we respond to them. If we respond positively to difficulties, the outcome potentially will be positive. If we respond negatively to our difficulties, the outcome probably will be negative. Our response is what we can call “The “If” Factor.”

Here’s what I mean:

1. Adversity introduces us to ourselves, if we want to know ourselves. If we are courageous, difficult times can create an opportunity for self-examination and self-discovery. Unfortunately, many people choose to hide. They build walls, close their eyes, run away, medicate themselves and find other ways of escaping reality. If that is your response to adversity, you will never understand the situation nor will you understand yourself in terms of how your respond to adversity. I love a story that motivational speaker Tony Robbins tells about two victims of chance—one who wins the lottery and another who is paralyzed in an accident. Three years later, why is the paralyzed person the happier of the two? The lottery winner had looked outside himself to make changes in his life. He used his lottery winnings to acquire things that he believed would make him happy. The paralyzed person, in contrast, is introduced to his potential inner-self through his adversity. He rises to challenges he never knew he could face but he had to because of his accident. And he comes to appreciate the good things in his life as he never did before.

2. Adversity is a better teacher than success, if we want to learn from it. You’ve probably heard the saying, “When the pupil is ready, the teacher will come.” That’s not necessarily true. With adversity, the teacher will come whether the pupil is ready or not. Philosopher and author Emmet Fox said, “It is the law that any difficulties that can come to you at any time, no matter what they are, must be exactly what you need most at the moment, to enable you to take the next step forward by overcoming them. The only real misfortune, the only real tragedy, comes when we suffer without learning the lesson.” God still governs human experience. “No temptation has come your way that is too hard for flesh and blood to bear. But God can be trusted not to allow you to suffer any temptation beyond your powers of endurance. He will see to it that every temptation has a way out, so that it will never be impossible for you to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13). It requires the right mindset and a deliberate intention to find the lesson in an adversity that we face. If we don’t embrace those things, all we end up with are the scars and a lot of bitterness in our hearts.

3. Adversity opens doors for new opportunities, if we want to learn from it. “Most of us are taught, beginning in kindergarten, that mistakes are bad,” noted Kim Kiyosaki, co-founder of the Rich Dad Co. “How often did you hear, ‘Don’t make a mistake!’ In reality, the way we learn is by making mistakes. A mistake simply shows you something you didn’t know before and now you know it enough not to commit the same mistake again.” A great example of this comes from a legend dating to the 1870s. As the story goes, a worker at Procter & Gamble forgot to turn off a machine that was mixing soap. But he packaged the “ruined” soap anyway, and hoped for the best that his mistake would not be noticed by his supervisors. The company was soon flooded with letters asking for more soap bars that floated in water and looked so pure and white. A manufacturing mistake led to an opportunity, this is the story of how Ivory Soap was created and became one of the best selling products of Procter & Gamble even today – a great success that came about because of a mistake.. Learn to take advantage of the opportunities adversity presents in your life.

4. Adversity can signal a coming positive transition, if we respond correctly. In 1915 the people of Coffee County, Ala., were devastated after boll weevils, a certain kind of insect, that destroyed their cotton crop which was their economic lifeblood. What would they do now? They would be financially ruined! But scientist George Washington Carver suggested to the people to grow peanuts which also could be used to make soap, ink, plastics and cosmetics, opening the local economy to a brighter future. Carver viewed the crop failure not as a disaster but as an opportunity for transition. There are now adversities facing you that could be the road to a transition in your life that God wants to use to release His blessings upon you. Like Carver, we can use adversity as a catalyst for change that will bring blessings in our lives if we put our faith in the Lord who said that all things, that include adversity, will work for the good of those who love Him and whom He has called according to His purpose that will be fulfilled in our lives.

5. Adversity brings profit as well as pain, if we expect it and plan for it. In the movie Black Hawk Down, a vehicle filled with wounded American soldiers lurches to a stop amid a hail of Somali bullets. An officer orders a soldier to get in and drive. “But I’m shot, colonel,” says the soldier. “Everybody’s shot,” responds the officer. “Get in and drive!” We should all expect pain and adversity in our life. But I think what distinguishes successful people is that they plan for it, and by doing so, they benefit from it. The story is told of FedEx founder Fred Smith recounting an interview between Olympic gold medalist pole-vaulter Bob Richards and some younger Olympians. Richards asked, “What did you do when you began to hurt?” None of these athletes were surprised by the question. They expected pain and had a strategy for dealing with it. As Richards summarized, “You never win the gold without hurting.”

6. Adversity writes our story, and if our response is right, the story will be good. Consider the tales of golfers Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin. Nicklaus narrowly lost the U.S. Open in 1982, and pundits thought the legend was too old to win another major tournament, but he went on to a victory in The Masters four years later, at age 46. Contrast that with Jacklin, who melted under pressure near the end of the 1972 British Open. “I had the heart ripped out of me,” Jacklin later said. “I was never the same.” Golfer Jacklin was defeated by his adversity while Jack Nicklaus never gave up because of his adversity and he is known today as a golf legend. Job was a man who was faced with so much adversity from the beginning of his story. (Job 1:13-22) Job Loses everything.

“13 One day Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house.

14 A messenger came to Job and said, “We were plowing the fields with the oxen and the donkeys were eating grass near- GOD’S ECONOMICS (The Biblical Principles of true prosperity) Rev. Richard Mirpuri by,

15 when some Sabeans attacked us and took your animals! They killed the other servants. I am the only one who escaped to come and tell you the news!”

16 That messenger was still speaking when another one came in and said, “A bolt of lightning struck your sheep and servants and burned them up. I am the only one who escaped to come and tell you the news!”

17 That messenger was still speaking when another one came in and said, “The Chaldeans sent out three raiding parties that attacked us and took the camels! They killed the other servants. I am the only one who escaped to come and tell you the news!”

18 That messenger was still speaking when another one came in and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house.

19 A strong wind suddenly came in from across the desert and blew the house down. It fell on your sons and daughters, and they are all dead. I am the only one who escaped to come and tell you the news!”

20 When Job heard this, he got up, tore his clothes, and shaved his head to show his sadness. Then he fell to the ground to bow down before God

21 and said, “When I was born into this world, I was naked and had nothing. When I die and leave this world, I will be naked and have nothing. The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away. Praise the name of the LORD!”

22 Even after all this, Job did not sin. He did not accuse God of doing anything wrong.” Chapter after chapter – he is stricken with painful boils that were oozing all over his body, his wife curses and abandons him, his friends accuse him of wrong doing – his adversity was intense, more intense than any of us will ever experience but listen to what the end of his story says of Job, chapter 42: 10: “Job prayed for his friends, and the LORD made Job successful again. The LORD gave him twice as much as he had before.” At the end of our lives, you and I will not be defined by what we have but by what we did with what we have –whether what we had was just little or whether it was a lot! We will also be defined not by the adversities we face in life – but by how each of us responded to that adversity. How about you? What story will you write as you face your own adversities, difficulties and challenges in your life this year 2014? Adversity without triumph is not inspiring; it’s depressing. Adversity without growth is not encouraging; it’s discouraging. Adversity can create a story of hope and success. I am praying that your life story will be similar to Job – in the midst of his adversity, he did not complain to God but instead worshipped God and in the end, the Lord gave him twice as much as he had before. So, be encouraged by these words from the Bible: “Good people suffer many troubles, but the LORD saves them from them all” (Psalm 34:19)##