Every tragedy, hardship, and difficulty we experience in life is an opportunity to either become more self-sufficient or more God-reliant.
Self-sufficiency will take us quite far.
It will get us through many challenges in life.
In fact, self-sufficiency will even enable us set up conditions in our lives that will relieve or, more likely, postpone our suffering for quite some time.
But, inevitably, self-sufficiency will fail us.
Tragedy will strike, hardships will befall us, and difficulties will arise that we simply cannot overcome on our own.
They will shake us to the core of our being and will cause us to question everything we previously held to be true.
No matter how smart we may be, no matter how much effort we can muster, and regardless of hard we try, we will realize that some things, the most important things, are entirely beyond our ability to control them.
In these moments, if our entire identity and sense of security is based on our self-sufficiency, we will feel lost, confused, and frightened when we realize that it has failed us.
If we are fortunate and willing enough to see, we may come to realize that our finite powers were never going to be enough to get us through the worst that life has to offer.
Nor are they enough to allow us to experience the best that life has to offer.
This realization, if we allow it to, can drive us to seek out and come to rely on a power greater than ourselves for comfort, guidance, and security.
This power, which many people call God, existed prior to our suffering, exists amidst our suffering, and will exist long after our suffering has passed.
It is an infinite source of hope, peace, and comfort.
All it needs from us is for us to be willing to receive, trust, and rely on it.
Tragedy will still strike, hardships will still befall us, and difficulties will still arise that we cannot overcome on our own, but, when they do, we will be comforted by the fact that we are not alone and that this, too, shall pass with the deepest, truest, and most permanent part of who we are unharmed and intact.
Meditations on God 