Paul's Hardships: How to Overcome Hardship

College: the best time of your life! Am I right?! Well… this doesn’t necessarily mean no struggle. College, for a lot of people, is the “glory days.” The thing is, college, can also be the years where students experience the most struggle.

In the Bible, a disciple named Paul went through a number of sufferings all in a short period of time. This included a life of loneliness and lack of acceptance. However, despite his unfortunate happenings, Paul failed to lose faith. He realized his situation, accepted it, and moved on. Paul describes his inspiration for his endurance with the following quote: “Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love.” As humans, especially humans in college, it is so easy to lose faith. How many times have you heard the phrase “I am so done”? Too many to count. It should be a habit to be encouraged, not discouraged by the future. Maybe one day we will consistently hear the phrase “I am so moving forward.”

I understand that some bumps in the road are not easy to overcome. I understand that you have times where you feel awkward and alone. But I also understand that there are ways to overcome this! This cool guy named Paul had a number of road blocks, but all he focused on was the beauty he saw in the possibilities of the future. So, I must ask you, what possibilities are in your future? There is beauty ahead of you, there are new chances to be successful. How can you focus on the beauty of the world today?