You can lean on a shoulder. You can give your shoulder to be leaned on. But that does not transfer strength. Strength, both physical and emotional, is built through excercise, through activity, through hard work and through pushing past existing limits. Facing weakness on the way is just a part of the process.
You cannot truly appreciate what you have till it is lost
There are plenty of things we are told to be grateful for: sunshine, health, our limbs, our senses and its hard to do. We know we take them for granted. But some things, I bet we don't even know we're taking them for granted because it doesn't even occur to us that its possible to be without these things... like our personality. Its ours right? It doesn't change... we're stuck with it! Even what we consider our personality is not set in stone. Anyone who has done things we would consider 'out of character' might have an idea of what I mean. Allah can give, and Allah can take. Anything. In times of loss, we sometimes forget that can and does also give!
Sometimes losing your way is the best way to find out which path you really want to take
How do you know you're on the right path if you've never seen the alternative(s)? Sometimes we set out on the path. Alhamdulillah sometimes it is the right path - no worries there. But we need to make sure it is! How many people have a passion for business and study Architecture instead because of other pressures? How many people would love to be a singer and wind up a plumber instead? Choosing less than the most suited career is not a sin... but its also unfulfilling and possibly a waste of talent and passion. Waste is haraam ;)
Does Allah not say that he loves the sinner who repents more than the one who does not sin?
We all know that Allah does not encourage sin, but perhaps we might understand that the lessons we learn can be far greater than the mistakes we make and Allah is there with 'open arms' as it were to take us back each time we stray.
Knowing yourself is the first step to any kind of success... yet knowing yourself requires failure
Life is like one of those never ending video games. You battle through each stage to get to the next level knowing that the next level with bring you greater challenges, harder bosses to defeat! When you fail to reach the next level, you learn something... change tactics, change timing, choose a better angle to attack from or take a more defensive stance! You take comfort in knowing that its just a game. No matter how long you play... well it'll end eventually. And probably too soon.
How is life so different? We all progress at different paces, some of us choose a slightly different game. But even at the most frustrating times, we should all know that this life is temporary and there is something greater awaiting us. Sometimes I think the difference is that we invest too much in this life. We put too much pressure on ourselves to achieve something we make ourselves believe HAS to be done. Sometimes we just need to rearrange our priorities, believe in the impossible (which is ACTUALLY possible and we just refuse to believe!) and let go of what we have no control over.
We never know what our limits are till we take ourselves there! I know how good I am at running thanks to good old schooldays and PE lessons: I suck! I am rubbish. I will never live the dream of becoming any kind of athlete. I would never have thought I had any patience... till I spent time with certain people and realised - patience, like strength, is acquired and we usually have more of it within us than we give Allah credit for giving. I would never have realised what a coward I am if I had not been confronted with certain situations I shall not go into :p but my point is, without being pushed to limits, we can never really know how far we are capable of going. Sometimes we have to step away from a goal sooner than we expected and at other times we find we have the potential to go so much further!
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