Revelation In Adversity

“If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.” (Pr 24:10 AV)

 

This proverb is a statement of fact not necessarily meant as a criticism.  Adversity is the way of life.  Sometimes we bear up, sometimes we do not.  In fact, the majority of times we do not completely bear up under the weight of what we are going through.  Adversity has a way of showing us our limits.  It has a way of building strength through testing that strength.  The oft used analogy of weight training is a good example. Muscle can only be built if it is strained to its maximum capacity.  This causes discomfort and residual pain.  No pain, no gain.  But it is through the endurance of hardship that strength is grown.  The verse can be a subtle form of rebuke if we have neglected the opportunity to grow our strength.  If we have not physically exercised or ate well, when illness comes it will take a greater toll.  If we are challenged on what we believe and we have not spent time in study, then we will lose the debate or worse, lose our faith.  However, no amount of training or preparation can overcome all adversity so there is no adversity at all. 

Looking back on life, I can recall numerous times of adversity.  Paper routes were a great experience that often pushed us to our limits.  Bad weather and customers who didn’t like to pay their bills are two that come to mind.  Dogs, too.  Then there were the scouting trips.  Building life skills through tests or pushing us to our limits with outdoor skills helped us to learn we can overcome and figure things out.  High school was fraught with adversity.  Especially if you were not in with the popular crowd.  There was subject matter that did not come easy.  Then comes college or training in the trades.  More adversity.  Athletics has its share.  Pretty soon marriage and kids come along.  Now we have to feed more mouths than our own.  There is the factory that closes, the power company needs their money, or the child has to be rushed to the hospital.  Some of these times we were pushed to our limits.  A potentially fatal diagnosis in a child is not a pleasant experience.  Now that we are getting up there in age, any appointment we have with a doctor could come with the news of our unfortunate mortality.  Adversity is the way of life.  It will always be there.  But these times are designed to make us stronger.  They reveal our weakness like a muscle that aches after a workout.  Adverity will reveal our weakness.  That is their design.

I came across the following quote that sums our thoughts up pretty well.  “Although men often “faint” in the day of adversity, or find their resources insufficient to meet their needs in the hour of trial, it is not necessarily the case, nor is it always so. Indeed, the intention of [a] trial is not to take away our strength, but to increase it. If the day of adversity proves too much for our strength, the encounter may leave us morally weaker than we were before; but if we bear it courageously, and do not allow it to drive us to despair, or even to doubt, we come out of the ordeal stronger than when we entered into it.” – Rev. W. Harris, The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic, Commentary on Proverbs.  So, when we are faced with hard times and feel like calling it quits, remember this is the way of life.  These times are not meant to defeat us even though, at times, we feel defeated.  They are meant to make us stronger.  The only choice we have to make is how we decide to respond.  Do we call it a day and check out?  Or, do we go to our knees and ask the Spirit for the wisdom and strength to endure.  If the former, then we will never overcome future adversity when it will inevitably come.  If the latter, then we can face the same intensity of adversity and then some.