Opposition in all things - good or bad?

This topic was touched on during my husband's lesson to the youth today during church. We were talking about whether or not trials are good for us. Everyone said they were but half of the class also said life would be easier without trials and the other half said that life would be boring without trials. It doesn't really matter which side you take, if any, but I find it interesting to think about and this is my thought process on the subject.

How do trials come about? Well, usually it's because there's something we're doing, or not doing, and a situation arises that tests us. When you hear the word "trial," I assume most people immediately associate it with the words like "bad" or "hard." I can't say I disagree, my personal trials tend to be pretty hard and not necessarily pleasant. So if they're so hard, why are we faced with them? Don't we have enough to deal with in the 21st century?

For me, I find the benefits of trials include strengthening who I am and becoming a better person. I couldn't count the number of trials I've endured in my life but the number doesn't really matter. I am, who I am, because of those trials and I like who I am and how far I've come. Sure, some I dealt with better than others but every single one, I came away having learned something for the better. Having improved myself, some how. I would never go back and change that.

But what if we didn't have trials? That's right, no more. Zero. You wouldn't have to face another problem. No more struggles, no more tears. Woohoo right? Yes? No? If you think about trials and the word it's associated with, "bad," then that would mean you wouldn't have any more "bad" in your life. Are you woohoo-ing now?

Well, if you don't have any bad, then you're left with good right? That's a good thing, yes? I don't believe so. How can you have good when there's no bad? How would you know that the way you feel right now is good if you've never experienced the opposite effect, bad? Sure, we can say, well I would know if I felt good. Yeah, that's because you've already dealt with feeling bad. If trials never took a role in our lives, from the very beginning of the human race, we'd never know the difference. Our emotions would never change because we wouldn't know there was an alternative to how we felt.

Surely if you didn't know the difference between good and bad then how would you know the difference between sorrow and joy? Or happy and sad? Or easy and hard? And if we never had this opposition, how would we grow? Would we ever change? If change means progression, how can we progress forward without any challenges? We couldn't.

There has to be an opposition in all things for us to change, for us to progress. Therefore, there has to be trials if we ever want to know that there's a difference. God knew exactly what He was doing when He allowed Adam and Eve to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. He also knows what He's doing when He gives us trials. What a loving God we have who loves us enough to allow us the opportunity to experience both the ups AND the downs.

So the next time you're struggling and you don't understand why you've been given such a heavy burden, ask yourself "do I want to grow or stay the same, never changing?" Trials aren't easy but they are doable. So many people say "God doesn't give you more than you can handle" which I think is true, but they left off an important part of that quote. "God doesn't give you more than you can handle without His help." And with that, anything is possible!