Why Are We Given Challenges...To Make Life Wonderful

The Sunday discussion on The Importance of Struggles in Our Lives has had me reflecting this past week.  The main consensus was we need challenges in our lives because the process of conquering them makes us stronger.  Now although I tend to agree with this philosophy, I think it is selling the true benefit challenges provide us short by only looking at them on a surface level.  I believe challenges are provided to us for much more important reasons in our lives than just to strengthen us.  By examining them on a deeper level we can find an entirely more important reason for their existence in our lives, and all the tertiary benefits that go with it. 

Have you ever heard the saying Without Black, We Would Never Know White.   For me this saying instantly conjures up the image of the Chinese symbol, The Ying Yang.  The Ying and Yang is a Chinese philosophy that is used to describe how contrary forces in our natural world are actually interconnected and interdependent.  In this world opposites only exist in relation to each other. Everything has both aspects of the yin and yang, but at any one time either of these aspects may become more dominant over the other.

If Chinese philosophy isn't your cup of tea, there is a wonderful song, written by Jason Mraz that actually delves into this philosophy of interconnectedness; it is called Life is Wonderful.  I have pulled out a couple lines from the song related to this:

"It takes some good to make it hurt
It takes some bad for satisfaction
It takes some cold to know the sun
It takes the one to have the other”

So what do Chinese philosophy and Jason Mraz have to do with understanding the true meaning of why challenges are given in our lives?  I picked these two examples for one reason, they both show how opposites exist only in relation to one another or "it takes the one to have the other". 

Only by going through the dark times that our challenges present us with are we capable of seeing the true beauty in our lives.  Without going through dark times we would have no context to compare the good and truly beautiful times to.  And let’s face it, good times are what make our lives worthwhile and add true happiness to our lives.

Over the past year, my battle with leukemia has brought about many challenges and shown me great beauty.  Going through this battle has led to two of my biggest passions, this blog and photography.  Without these challenges, I would not have the source of inspiration for topics I write about or I would not see things as vividly and photographing them on camera as much.

When you are faced with your next challenge remember it is just temporarily exerting dominance in your interconnected world, so embrace it whole heartedly.  The journey to overcome it will teach you something about yourself and you will become better for it.  But don't forget to always be looking for the "light" side.  Everything is interconnected and if you look hard enough you will find the true beauty connected to your challenge.

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