«[God] comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble» (2 Corinthians 1:4).
HOW DO PEOPLE cope with failure? Researcher Carol Dweck set out to answer that question. When she began researching, Dweck assumed there were two ways of dealing with challenges: facing them or running away from them. However, she found out there’s a third option.
She gathered a group of children and gave them a series of puzzles. The first ones were easy to assemble, but the following ones were increasingly more complicated. Some children began to complain, others perspired and toiled … Meanwhile, Dweck “watched their strategies and probed what they were thinking and feeling.” Then something she had never imagined took place … A boy who had to put together one of the most difficult puzzles “pulled up his chair, rubbed his hands, smacked his lips, and cried out, ‘I love a challenge!” Another one said, «I was hoping this would be informative!” After analyzing these reactions, the researcher concluded: «Not only weren’t they discouraged by failure, they didn’t even think they were failing. They thought they were learning.»
Can we learn from our setbacks? In 2 Corinthians 1, the apostle Paul presents two lessons we can draw from our gloomiest situations.
• The first one is found in this verse: «Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble” (verse 4). Our failures teach us to comfort those who are going through a similar experience. After my mother’s death, I am more sympathetic toward those who have lost a parent, because my loss has taught me to comfort them. Our experience is what gives us the ability to understand and help those who are going through what we have already overcome.
• The second lesson is found in verse 9: “We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” Failure should teach us to trust in God more and less in ourselves.
So let’s not limit ourselves to facing situations or fleeing from them. I invite you to try to learn from them.
www.meditacionesdiarias.com
https://twitter.com/meditacionesdi1
http://www.instagram.com/meditacionesdiarias7
Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2023
“I AM WITH YOU”
From: J. VLADIMIR POLANCO
Collaborators: Lorina Maya & Angelica Cuate
