In 2015 I wrote a post that I titled… ‘In the trenches’. Perhaps because of the times we live in, I thought a bit of a revisit was in order. I, obviously, can’t speak for you but, for me, there are times that this is precisely how I feel. YET… I have nothing to complain about and ‘in the trenches’ is more of an intellectual and spiritual sense – not a physical one. [when you see this bracket, it means a thought added in 2021]
Back in 2015 I wrote:
First – don’t assume that ‘in the trenches’ is a negative or painful place to live. Sometimes it is, but we can still laugh and love and grow in our time here. This is where most of us live the majority of our lives… in the trenches. We live in our day-to-day which allows us to define what that means and how we respond to the challenges and opportunities, threats and obstacles existing… many times, in the moment and sometimes feeling like they all are present simultaneously.
Don’t make the assumption that this is always warfare, because it isn’t. Life isn’t only made up of a series of obstacles, difficulties, and loss. There are surprises, opportunities, success when we stop to realize this. John Gardner wrote: “We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.” [Perhaps a mindset to cultivate?]
Brilliant! I like that! This mindset is a paradigm shift in how to think about and look at our problems, dilemmas and consider them as opportunities. So often we feel overwhelmed by the issues we face in the trenches that we miss an out of the box new discovery. Plus, do we take the time to learn the lessons provided in previous positive, successful and new discovery times? The positive lessons from these experiences don’t always seem to transfer into potential resolutions for the ‘other’ times.
Since we live in the trenches, what do you do about your residence? Do you tailor it to meet your wants and desires… or, do you do so little to it because you really don’t like this locale? If you expect to be permanently ‘rescued’ from your present abode, you might want to rethink this. In the second place, if your expectation is rescue, you still don’t know when that may be – yes? Though I don’t always follow my own advice, it would seem we should take advantage of everything available to us in our good and bad times and places.
In the trenches is a reality. And yes, the vast majority of the time may be in battle, but do you know who and what your enemy is? Never assume. There are times the ‘enemy’ is our own unwillingness to look at our reality. If in a battle, we don’t need to fight by ourselves – we always have a companion to turn to… the Lord. We are or may be in a battle… but never alone. An important reminder is that we can always look at life as… an opportunity.
So why am I sharing a 6 year old post? Primarily because it does speak to our now, what many are calling ‘the new normal’ even though we’re still in the midst of this world wide situation. It’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel or throw the baby out with the bathwater, but it is an opportunity to reassess, reevaluate what is important, who we are, how we live our lives. If we can’t change our circumstances, then how can we adapt them or ourselves? Remember the old saying, The Serenity Prayer – originally published in 1951 and (though somewhat controversially) attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, a Protestant theologian, in 1951
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
Excellent advice… but advice one should adopt in one’s life and apply it.
