Life in the Neighborhood



Daniel Striped Tiger

"There is no normal life that is free of pain. It's the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus for our growth." -Mr. Rogers

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood... Words that most people are going to recognize - the opening song to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

I'm confident and man enough to admit I watched this show long past an age where most would quit watching. (Though I know some of you feel me on this one, because you still watch Arthur on PBS now, too.)

Anyway, Mr. Rogers the man was full of wisdom. And that quote at the top really resonates with me. This might as well be a continuation of yesterday's post. No normal life is free of pain. It's a fact that we cannot escape. Life is a big roller coaster ride.

Yet it's in and through that pain where we can experience growth. How so? Well, it's very simple. The pain and the problems humble us. It's hard to think more highly of yourself that you ought to (the definition of pride) when you've fallen off that cliff. The pain and the problems reveal to us our need for help.

Last year was such a time for me. Without turning this blog into a dissertation (big word), an issue for me is dealing with stress in, well, not good ways. More to the point, I tend to keep it bottled up, only for it to blow up in my face. So rather than talk about the stress or something constructive, it was bottled up and eventually became heart palpitations. Which I'm here to say: those suck and are scary to experience.

Needless to say that was a low point. A very low point. And recovering from that low point took a lot of time, learning, and re-learning what I had already learned but failed to act on. You can see more of what I learned here. Without that low point, I wouldn't have truly appreciated the words of Paul in Philippians 4:6-7 nor experienced the peace that does pass understanding. Without that low point, I wouldn't have seen the way I handle stress (because it piled on for a while) and worry. I grew from that low point.

Mr. Rogers got it right. The pain can be the impetus for our growth. Or it can continue to send us spiraling out of control as we continue to believe we have everything under control and don't need help - from above and/or others. If you don't see the need for help, you'll never grow. But if you finally admit that you have no control whatsoever, that's when things can slowly begin turning around.

I promise I'll have something light-hearted posted here soon, but when you get inspired by sunrises and the Neighborhood of Make Believe, you have to write about them.

-D