"Good Things Happen During Difficult Times"

Pain is bad. Pleasure is good. Ever since I was a boy, my life experience taught me to avoid the former and pursue the latter. Unfortunately my aversion to pain affected many decisions I made later on in life. Whether it involved my education, a job opportunity or a relationship, I gravitated toward the path of least resistance because it steered me away from pain.

The wonder of life is that it is not always so wonderful. King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wrote that time and chance happen to us all. Out of the blue, hardship descends upon us like a thief in the night. And it is during times of affliction that we discover what we are really made of.

Last summer my wife and I were notified that we had been exposed to Covid-19. Thankfully she tested negative, but I was one of millions of Americans who did not. As bad as the virus made me feel, the 14-day isolation period was an even harder pill to swallow.

Deprived of all physical contact - I couldn't even pet my dog - my interactions with the outside world were limited to phone calls and texts. It didn't take long for me to become restless and irritable. Pacing the bedroom floor like a bull in a china shop, I resented my wife for banishing me from every room in the house. Even the kitchen was off limits.

I was so consumed thinking about myself, I discounted her concern to protect our family from exposure to an extremely contagious virus. Nor did I fully appreciate the sacrifices she had to make moving her home office downstairs and sleeping on the living room couch every night so that I had room to recuperate. "Selfish" is probably not a strong enough word to use here. All I thought about was me. It was my pain, my suffering, my inconvenience. Me. Me. Me.

Fortunately, the good Lord puts people in our lives to help us see things in a more positive light. A few days into my quarantine, I got a call from my dear friend Kwaku Sarkodie. After listening patiently to my tale of woe, Kwaku suggested that since I had plenty of time on my hands perhaps I should consider writing a song. I agreed that would be a good thing to do.

Songwriting is very therapeutic. It helps me sift through my thoughts and emotions and figure out what's really going on. One of the simple truths in life is that if you look hard enough, there is good to be found in any difficult situation. Even the darkest cloud has a silver lining. That's what I needed to write about.

Good things can come from difficult times. It all depends on what you choose to focus on. Being a "glass-half-empty" guy myself, my immediate response to hardship is to focus on the problem not the solution. As uncomfortable as it was at the time, contracting the virus was actually good for me. It forced me into the humble position of depending on others and confronted me with an irrefutable fact of life. There is a God and I am not him.

In a letter to the Gentile believers in Rome during a time of intense persecution, the apostle Paul wrote, "We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character; and character hope." Be joyful in all situations? Glory in our sufferings? Are you kidding me? No way! Why would anyone want to do that?

Coming from a man who was beaten and left for dead by angry mobs, shipwrecked and imprisoned, Paul is more than qualified to preach about being grateful when life deals you a crummy hand. He concluded that pain and suffering is necessary to forge strength of character.

Anyone can maintain a positive outlook when life is all roses, but when things go sideways, it's quite a different story. Unlike Job who fought to maintain a spiritual perspective while suffering through intense calamity, I am more inclined to follow the advice of his three friends. "Just be done with it! "Stop whining and complaining!" "Curse God and die!" Through intense suffering, Job learned the fundamental truth of the universe. God is sovereign. He created all things. He knows all things. And therefore he owes us no explanation.

Without a spiritual perspective, we completely miss the boat on Paul's life lesson. Even though it goes against every fiber of our being, we need to embrace the pain so that suffering can produce a good work in us. We can grow bitter and wallow in self-pity, but an ungodly response to hardship gets us nowhere. There are times when we simply have to grin and bear it.

Living in America, we look at the world through rose colored glasses. We have a sense of entitlement. We feel that we don't deserve to suffer. The simple things in life that we take for granted every day are considered luxuries in the third world. Four walls and a roof over our heads. Clean running water. A hot shower. A refreshing glass of iced tea. The warmth of the morning sun through the bedroom window. These are the simple things I was most grateful for during my lockdown.

As Paul wrote so eloquently nearly 2000 years ago, persevering through hardship produces gratitude of heart. In the midst of affliction, looking for the good produces an inner resolve that tempers the human spirit. A famous poet once said, "Perhaps you have to know the darkness in order to appreciate the light." Gratitude is the key that throws open the doorway to hope.

Toward the end of a life marked by greatness and tragedy, King David wrote, "As for me, the boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places." Looking back on my life, in spite of or perhaps because of the hard times, I am grateful. Writing a simple song channeled my negative thoughts in a positive direction, and hopefully produced a heart change that I will carry forward with me.

What suffering produces in us is up to us. The same forces of nature that produce a precious diamond can also yield a lump of coal. Depending upon our perspective, the trials and tribulations of life will produce one of two outcomes. We will either allow hardship to harden our hearts and make us bitter, or we will allow it to purify our hearts and make us better. Often overlooked by the critical eye, the silver linings in life are discovered by those who through patience and perseverance come to possess the faithful vision of a grateful heart.