By Cleah Ayoub
Whether miniscule or massive, hardships we encounter in our lives can trigger a cycle of doubt, anxiety, and loneliness.
We can convince ourselves that we lack the graces required to ask God for help, or deem ourselves unworthy of aid.
This further manifests in different aspects of our lives—spiritual, mental, and physical.
However, what we don’t recognise is that Jesus is there on the sidelines. He doesn’t abandon us and instead works with us so that when we pull ourselves out of a rut, we reflect on how we never suffered alone.
Jesus is always there to remind us that he is very much prevalent in our suffering and wants us to commemorate and celebrate this.
Attending Mass, regular confession and communion is just the foundation. Start and end your day with a prayer of thanksgiving, for you have made it through another day.
When your siblings or parents ask for help or a chore to be done, do it with grace and selflessness, for God has bestowed these gifts for us to use.
In this respect, carry out your work in your jobs and/or any studies with integrity and diligence and excel in them, we were blessed with intellects for this reason.
Reiterating these small acts can only ever manifest into bigger endeavours and, without realising it, you become an embodiment of compassion, consciousness, and spiritual intellect; something Jesus emulated.
With these characteristics can you negate any evils set out to destroy your soul.
Even then, we as humans are susceptible to challenges and can easily find ourselves falling back into a pessimistic mindset.
When in periods of desolation, there is only one cure: Jesus. We mustn’t abandon the fact that Jesus is very much alive in our suffering. If anything, he has suffered for us to show that he suffers with us.
It must be a Christian’s favourite saying to say, “God works in mysterious ways”. If I had a dollar for every time I heard this, I would’ve paid off my student debt by now.
As flawed creatures with limited knowledge we do not have the capacity to holistically understand why and how God works the way he does.
The biblical story of Job reminds us that questioning God’s divine wisdom is so human. Job, a blameless and sensible man, was tested by God, who allowed Satan to deprive him of everything: his farm, his family, his wealth.
Subsequently, he was left mortified and he became severely ill and disfigured.
Convinced that his suffering wasn’t fair, he questioned why God had allowed for such agony.
There is no denying we have all thought this before. Reflected in our thoughts, words, or actions, we constantly question why God has permitted for us to suffer, especially if we have devoted our entire lives to know and love him.
As though we are swallowed by these grieving thoughts, we forget to acknowledge how insignificant we are.
There is no way of sugarcoating it. Our secularised society has convinced us poor, lowly creatures that we have sole authority over our lives and destiny, often allowing us to fall into the mindset that we can “play God.”
What happens when we believe we can “play God?” Abortions are legalised, innocent civilians fall victim to wars and poverty, profits are made from insecurities and mental illnesses, leading to booming gender and plastic surgery industries.
Until we realise that God, our creator, has sole authority over us, we are giving every opportunity for Satan to antagonise us and exploit our deepest insecurities to make us believe we are not worthy of goodness.
Relinquish your anxieties and worries and thank God for the blessings he has bestowed upon you and continue to pray for the graces to persevere because even Job himself recognised his insignificance and just how much he thirsted for God.
Cleah Ayoub is the Notre Dame University representatives for UniMaronite, an intervarsity movement that helps tertiary students grow in their Maronite faith.