A Light at the End of the Tunnel

Once upon a time there was a man sleeping in his cabin one night. Suddenly, his room was filled with light and an angel appeared to him and told him that he had a job for him. He then showed him a big rock and explained that his duty was to push the rock with all his might. And that’s what the man did. For several days he worked hard, from sunrise to sunset, pushing with all his energy, his shoulder pressed against the massive wall of the rock. Despite his efforts, the rock remained stagnant. So each night he returned to his cabin, completely exhausted and bruised, he always felt his day was wasted.

Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, the Devil decided to enter the scene, by arousing negative thoughts in his mind such as “Why are you killing yourself on this task? You will never manage to move this rock! Or “My boy, you’ve been here a long time already and you have not even scratched the surface!” He gave the man the impression that his task was impossible.

These thoughts discouraged the man who began to relax in his efforts. “It’s true after all, why should I continue to struggle when my efforts make no impact? I’ll just leave the job “and that’s what he planned to do. Later that day, he decided to talk to the Lord. “Lord,” he said, “I have worked hard and long in your service, using all my strength to do what you commanded me, and I have not even managed to move the rock a millimeter. What’s wrong? Why can’t I do it? “.

With compassion, the Lord replied;

“My friend, I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you to push the rock with all your strength and that’s what you did.  I never mentioned that I was waiting for you to move it! Your task was to push it. You’ve come to me because your strength is exhausted and you think you have failed but the truth is you didn’t fail. Look at yourself, due to that task, your arms have become stronger and muscular. Your back is toned and tanned. Your hands are firm thanks to the constant pressure on the wall of the rock and your legs have become strong and massive. You have grown a lot thanks to the opposition so now; your abilities are greater than what it was.  You couldn’t move it because it was not your responsibility to do so. Your responsibility was to be obedient, exercise your faith and trust in my wisdom, and that’s what you did. Now, it’s my duty to move the rock and expose the luxuries stored behind for you.”

Life is full of challenges. While some people seem to face all challenges with confidence, others are scared of it. Being afraid of challenges and hard times doesn’t prevent them from knocking on our doors. What matters is to learn how to approach it with a positive attitude.

Paradoxically, if we consider challenges as new opportunities and not as failures, we will always live differently. You have to experience ill-health to appreciate health. You have to know poverty to appreciate wealth or the little that you have. You have to experience commotion to appreciate peace. You have to see death to appreciate life. You have to experience separation to appreciate a reunion. You have to experience hate to value love. Oppositions teach, build and help us to grow. Since they are completely inevitable, we are expected to build our emotions so we don’t get discouraged by challenges.

How do you get through the night?

To get through the night you would need: faith, confidence, patience, and the “never give up “attitude. There would be times when your strength would fail but with these virtues you would get going till you see the light.

Count on yourself for the solution

While there are some of your problems that can be solved by people, there are others that no one can solve for you. Besides, trusting in man often leads to disappointment so it’s your duty to depend on yourself to solve all your problems.

Instead of looking for easy solutions, evaluate the situation, your resources and abilities, and act. Your action may go through the help of others, but it will be up to you to solve the problem. With faith in your potentials, you can turn a mountain of challenges into a speck of dust.

Challenges are opportunities for growth. This growth draws out your potentials, which is infinite and very active at every moment of your life. Take note that you are a pure potential that runs and sees life through boundaries. The challenges are flashes that can help you break these imaginary limits and lead you to master your potential. Meanwhile, no challenge is meant to last forever. Yes!  There is always an expiry/victory date.

What challenging path have you been walking on for years now?  It could be that you had experienced a traumatic relationship which made you to believe that true love can’t find you. Maybe, you are often reminded of your ill health status each time the sensations of pain swiftly move through your body. You wish you weren’t the one going through such challenge. My message for you is, no matter how long the night might be, there’s always a dawn. Yes!  Every dark tunnel has an end. So do not give up because you might already be closer to the shining light at the end of the tunnel.