Why Adversity - One Christians Perspective:

Everyone has experienced adversity in one way or another.   For some, adversity turns people away from God.  For others, adversity draws people to Faith in God. Having experienced tragedy in my life, I was one who held on to the belief that if God did exist, God was certainly not a loving Spirit.  For if God was loving, he wouldn't allow bad things to happen.  Ultimately, I spent a good part of my life believing that God did not exist at all, for if God did exist, he would not have created me to endure hardship, pain, and suffering.  By the time I hit forty, my perspective on God changed because my knowledge and experiences had expanded and with that growth came the realization that where there is good, there is also bad.  Where there is a negative, there is also positive, a scientific fact right down to the negative and positive charge of ions.  We learn that matter is created by the attraction of a negative ion to a positive ion. Positive and negative, from a chemistry perspective, allows all things to take form and allows for life forms to exist.

From a biological perspective, plants thrive on carbon dioxide, and release oxygen.  We on the other hand, breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide.  We can't live in a world without oxygen and plants can't live without carbon dioxide. If we breathe only carbon dioxide, we will cease to exist.  Again we see two opposites that serve to sustain life, and all life cannot exist without balance of nature. Carnivores cannot exist without a food source and that food source is another living form.  Adversity, pain, and suffering results, because one living species will fall prey to the predator in order for the predator to continue to live.  If all animals were herbivores, plants would disappear and the food source for herbivores would disappear, and ultimately all animals would perish from starvation.  For everything there is an opposite in order for life to continue.

Nature can be a friend or an enemy to any living species.  Wind spreads seeds, pollen, spores in order for vegetation to thrive and grow.  Without wind, growth remains isolated to one area, depleting the soil nutrients which in turn will allow for vegetation to die off.  If vegetation dies off, so does many living herbivores.  And if herbivores die off, so does the food chain for another living species. 

Wind for humans can be positive or negative.  Wind allows for vegetation growth which allows for the production of oxygen.  Wind, on the other hand, can produce hardship.  Hurricanes are an example.    We have harmony and balances in order for life to exist.  But what may cause harmony and balance, can also be destructive. We have opposing forces in order for life to exist.  If we have opposing forces, we will also find adversity.  It is a requirement for life to exist in any shape or form.  If there was no adversity, then we have no opposing forces, and with no opposing forces, life would cease to exist. Adversity is a fact of life pure and simple.

The cosmos exists due to opposing forces which create balance and harmony. If you really sit down and think about it, everything about life is extremely complex and the forces that interact to sustain life are just as complex.  If there is a God.  He certainly isn't simple.  He obviously had it all planned out in order for life to persist and not perish all together.

Death is a form of adversity because we value life and love.  We have loved ones, whose death, brings to us a sense of loss.  We grieve and feel sad and we call that a form of adversity.  Life and death are opposing forces, and exists in order to maintain balance.  That balance ensures that life will continue through time.  Life and death is one of many cycles and without it, you and I would not be here today.  Many of us have lost a loved one whose life ended naturally or by an opposing force.  Good and evil is just one example.  This does not mean that there is no God or no loving God.  We all know that death exists so that we can live.

Good and evil are two opposing forces.  Where there is good there is also evil.  Evil lends to adversity.  How many of us have suffered at the hands of another?  Many of us who lack Faith will rationalize that no God would allow bad things to happen.  Bad things do happen because there is always opposing forces. However, evil people usually become evil by choice. For we as humans have free will to choose how we shall  behave, act, and think. I have been sexually assaulted, but I know it was not God who made this happen.  The fault belongs to the perpetrators who chose to act a certain way.  Good and evil, positive and negative, life and death, is a fact of life. Given this understanding, I have taken my adversity to a higher level of understanding.  In so doing, I have turned adversity from negative to a positive.  I could have remained in the negative by choice, but to do so would have placed limitations on my happiness and would have prevented me from living and loving to the utmost degree.  Adversity can make us or break us.  I chose it to make me stronger, to make me love more, to make me give more,  and to make me more of a positive person in every aspect of my life, knowing full well that no matter how positive I am, there will always be an opposing force somewhere because that is a fact of life. 

As a Christian, I say: 

"Whatever you are not willing to sacrifice is your greatest treasure, and wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Adversity strips away the pretense and self-delusion and shows you what you treasure the most and where your heart truly is.