Ok, we all know that life isn't easy. Let's say that again – Life is not easy! It is also not for the faint-hearted either. Life is hard. If you have lived for very long you have your own tales to tell of things you have had to overcome, things that were harder than you expected, and things that just don't seem fair.
If Kung Fu (and life) have taught me one thing over and over again, is that I will be thrown down to the matt again and again. It doesn't seem fair when I am sparring with a guy twice my size and he executes a takedown that I don't see coming and I am slammed to the matt. It doesn't seem fair when I am the most qualified person for the job, but the guy who golfs with the VP gets the job instead. It doesn't seem fair when my child who has overcome more obstacles in life than I ever could have, gets teased by mean children.
Life at times isn't fair and is hard. But one thing that I know is that if we couldn't handle it, God would have never allowed it to happen. This is a lesson I have learned the hard way in life, by walking through many painful and unfair things. But each has brought me to a place where I have had to decide. Do I stay down and lick my wounds? Do I stay where life has knocked me down? Or do I say hell no, and get back up stronger.
You already know the answer. Every successful person, every person who has achieved greatness in life has been knocked down and been knocked down hard. Our character is developed by what we decide in those moments. Who we are is birthed in our deepest pain.
We all like the highs in life. Who doesn't like when everything is going our way. Who doesn't love when everyone in your family is healthy, money is flowing, everyone is happy? But we all know life won't stay that way for long. We all know there will be times of hardship, challenge, pain, that at times seem almost unbearable. This is life, the highs, and the lows, the good and the bad.
The thing that successful people know is that it wasn't the highs that made them who they are. It isn't the great moments of life that defined them. People are defined by what they have walked through and endured without allowing who they are inside to be altered. When you can come through your most difficult times with love, determination and new strength that you never saw before, this is when you have taken new ground. This is when you have grown, this is what brings us through the middle.
How do you do this? Only through knowing God. You need to first know who you are and whose you are. I tell my children over and over again that who they are is a conversation between them and God. I don't know what they are capable of, I don't know what their true purpose is. I will do whatever I can to help them find it, but the best I can do for them is to lead them back to Him.
Each of us was created for a purpose. The bible will teach you that. But if you are reading this book I am pretty sure you already know that and are trying really hard to get there too!