The Positive Side of Adversity

When we think of the word “adversity” our immediate thought may be an array of difficult circumstances including mental and physical illnesses, devastating wars, financial difficulties that can lead to inevitable challenges, natural disasters that lead to terrible losses, and spiritual death that is a breathing ground for vices or criminal activities. Webster’s dictionary defines adversity as “a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune”. But as preposterous as it sounds, there is a positive side of adversity.

Though there is no denying that adversity can be very devastating. According to Julian Melgosa, “all adversities are bitter, but from them we can learn lessons of experience and strength. When we remember the difficult experiences of the past from beginning to their end we almost always find that we have learned something” (Positive Mind, p. 252). Whether in the midst of adversity or in its aftermath, we can ask ourselves specific questions: (1) What lessons have I learned?  A (2) How have I developed strength as a result of it? And (3) how have I been following Jesus,  “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14;6) in spite of my challenges? 

The Bible does give evidence of how Daniel and his friends stayed committed to Jesus even in adversity. They developed strength by their decision to be temperate in diet, though the temptations were great to adopt a diet of flesh and wine while in captivity in Babylon under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The Babylonian diet would have been corrupting for these Jewish youth, leading them away from God. So “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor the wine which he drank” (Daniel 1:8). God Himself “was working in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. . . His grace is given to work in us to will and to do, but never as a substitute for our effort, Our souls are to be aroused to cooperate” (Youth Instructor August 20, 1903).

God wants us to take the right approach to living with adversity. Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” The world may sanction alcohol, vaping, smoking, video gaming, sex, or other means of coping with adversity, but with the Christian there must be no compromise. This is just what Daniel and his friends refused to do. They made a proposal to Melzar, their overseer, “let them give us pulse (vegetables) to eat, and water to drink” (Daniel 1:12) for ten days. “At the end of the ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat” (Daniel 1:15). But can you envision the ridicule they may have endured during that time? If you are a vegetarian, chances are you have heard a carnivore (a meat eater) mocking vegetarians about “tofu”, a soy derivative, as though this is all that constitutes a vegetarian diet. There is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). 

Jesus Himself endured mockery and all sorts of evil. He dealt with adversities throughout His life. Suffering was actually part of His mission on this earth (Isaiah 53). Hebrews 5:8 says,  “Jesus learned obedience through suffering.” Ultimately, He willingly died on a cruel cross to save us from our sins. This is the Creator of the universe who came down from heaven, our God, to sacrifice Himself for us so that we can have everlasting life. He is also our High Priest who is touched with our infirmities; He was tempted in ways that we have been tempted (Hebrews 4:15, 16). Therefore, He is able to “comfort us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Corinthians 1:4). Let us activate our will to work in tandem with Jesus through any adversity so that we will never lose hope, laying hold of scriptural promises of a new heaven and a new earth that will be foreign to adversity (Revelation 21:1-4).