On Facing Life as It Is

Sometimes in looking at the lives of others, we may suppose that there are those who lead an untroubled existencefree from the heartaches, free from the reverses, free from the causes for worry and anxiety that beset the rest of us. The less we know about others, the more likely we are to make this error. We can’t tell on casual acquaintance what another man may be carrying around in his heart, but, we may know with almost infallible certainty, that, whoever he is and whatever he is, life has dealt with himor will before he is through with it. We decide in the glorious and optimistic promise of our youth what we would like life to give us. We dream our dreams. We make our plans. We write our own specifications. We decide what we would like to be; what we would like to do; where we would like to live; what we would like for our children; how we would like the days and years to unfoldand then, the unforeseen, the unplanned intervenes: sometimes misfortune, sometimes opportunity, but almost certainly something different from what we had planned. Few men become what they expected to become. They may become something greater or less, but in any case, something different. Life shapes us as we shape life. And when some of the things we had our hearts set upon do not unfold for us, sometimes we go to the extreme of railing against the Almighty. Sometimes we refuse to accept the irrevocable, and doggedly beat our heads against the wall. But, long after our heads are beaten and bruised, we find that the wall is still there. When we stubbornly rebel against irrevocable decisions, we risk being bowed down in a bitterness that offers no reconciliation. Bitterly wishing that something which has happened had not happened, is understandable, but not profitable. It tends to clutter up the present with the wreckage of the past. Fighting against something that can be changed and ought to be is thrilling. But fighting against what cannot be changed is futile fighting. We all learn about disappointment. Surely we must keep the blueprints of our dreams before us. But, having done the best we can under all circumstances, we may find our greatest victory in what at first seemed to be our certain defeat, as Providence and forces beyond our control step in and take over, and overrule the best laid plans of men.