We all face adversity in our lives. Sometimes we face it with a coworker, a boss, or a subordinate. It may be a neighbor, a financial setback, loss of a job, or dealing with sorry customer service when you need it. Regardless of where or when you find it, anyone with any life experience knows that it will be found.
In reading the book of Proverbs, I find that 24:10, in the HCSB, says:
If you do nothing in a difficult time, your strength is limited.
As happens once in a while I wanted to look this up in different versions for more clarification. Many different translations choose to translate צרה (tsarah) as adversity. The second half of the verse has varied translations. The YLT version words it thus:
Thou hast shewed thyself weak in a day of adversity, Straitened is thy power,
Straitened? Words such as this are the price of reading a translation 114 years old. Characterized by poverty is what you’ll find in the Oxford dictionary. Your strength being characterized by poverty does not have a very flattering sound to it. It sounds at least a little bit like something one should be embarrassed of.
In the mid-eighteenth century John Gill wrote men who do nothing in the midst of adversity have “a lack of manliness” (definite source of embarrassment, if you’re male) in them and that they act like children. Maybe it’s my age showing but it seems that such behavior is growing more prevalent today in Western thought. It shows in the lengths to which politically correct speech has gone. While certainly some words are exceptionally offensive and should not be uttered, the amount of posturing and crying we in the modern world sometimes put on for hurt feelings is, at times, dumbfounding. I can’t help but think that reflects an impoverished strength.
Is there a principle here to apply to our physical health? Adversity restated is difficulty. The fact is taking charge of your health is difficult. We are constantly bombarded with anti-health messages. Advertising works. Companies spend billions on it. When for-profit enterprises spends billions every year for ages on something, you can rest assured that happens only because it works.
Take this constant barrage and combine it with the fact that being weak is easy and you have a pretty good blueprint for rampant chronic diseases. Why do I say being weak is easy? Read my former mantras below and see if they sound familiar:
- Cook at home? I don’t know how.
- Healthy lunch? I don’t have time.
- Give up sugar? I don’t eat that much.
- Buy unprocessed & fresh foods? Too expensive.
Whether you’re talking about your health, your professional life, your social life, or some other aspect our existence here on earth, overcoming adversity always leads to greater rewards than fleeing from it. When you find yourself facing adversity, take comfort knowing they are temporary. Take heart knowing the choice to be characterized by impoverished power is yours.
This article was first published on March 29, 2015 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.