If you read inspirational stories, you will find that most of the
people we call "heroes" are simply individuals who found a dark
situation and had the passion and perseverance to create something
positive-- in spite of it.
One such inspiring example is Pushpa Basnet, a 2012 CNN Hero of the
Year, who helped to develop a housing program for children of
prisoners in Nepal after she learned that they were actually growing
up incarcerated with their parents.
This past week has also been full of powerful stories about men and
women who are putting their all into making things better for their
neighbors – and even for strangers – in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
Indeed, history teaches us that most of humanity's greatest
accomplishments have blossomed from the seeds of hard work and
persistence sown on behalf of others in the face of difficulty.
The same was true of Abraham in the Bible. If we look at Abraham's
life, we will see that he reached his high spiritual level because he
passed through ten trials. But if we look a little deeper, we will
seethat it was not the trials themselves that brought him to where he
needed to be, but instead the way that he responded to them.
Abraham didn't complain in the face of each difficulty or say, "Why do
I have to do this? Why am I being forced to suffer in this way?"
Instead, whatever the Creator asked of him, Abraham accepted as his
role with certainty.
He took the circumstances he was given, formed them, and created
beauty from them.
Whatever seemed negative, Abraham transformed into something positive.
How many times does life throw us a curve ball and the first thing we
say is "How come? Why me? How come my business failed? How come my
relationship failed? After all, aren't I a spiritual person?"
Oftentimes, we approach our day as a series of tasks to complete: wake
up, go to work, do whatever we need to doto get on with our lives.
If we complete these tasks, we are happy and feel productive, and if
we don't, we are left feeling dissatisfied.
Abraham approached his day differently. Every time he met with
aggression, every time he met with people that sought to do him harm,
every time he ran up against a wall, he would say, "I accept this
situation for what it is, and instead of letting it victimize me, I
will transform it into positivity."
In other words, Abraham lived to find the spirituality in each day, in
each trial, in each frustration that he faced.
The truth is, we don't have to wait for tragedy to wake us up. Each
one of us, if we open our eyes and tune in a bit more to our lives,
will find that we have opportunities each and every day to transform
negativity into positivity.
Oftentimes, when someone or some situation challenges us, our first
thought is usually: How can I make this situation go away as soon as
possible, rather than How can I transform this situation into success?
Sometimes, we can even be so quick to push the situation aside that we
don't even realize we have lost a chance to make a change in our
lives.
This week, let's be aware of the opportunities that the universe sends
us to bring spirituality into our daily activities, so we can reach
the heights we are destined for.
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