Many times, I tweet and post on my Facebook page about the idea that the challenges we face in life are actually concealed blessings. For me, this isn’t just a nice idea or cliché: It’s something I experience and apply in my life. I’d like to share with you a personal experience that I spoke about in my recent lecture tour on reincarnation and is the focus of this excerpt from my book, God Wears Lipstick.
My father died in 1942 during World War II, right before I was born. Mother was looking to make a life for herself, so I spent most of my time with my grandmother. I was really close to her, and with her help, I raised myself. Eventually, my mother married my stepdad. You would think after this second marriage, my life would have settled down, but it didn’t. Altogether, I went to 13 different public schools.
It was a nomadic, unstable experience—one in which I never got the protection of a “normal” household or family. And externally, I was a mess. I was five years behind in reading, and my classmates made fun of me. They’d call me “stupid.” One night, some kids threw me into a construction pit. I started crying. I couldn’t get out. I was afraid I would die down there.
Why am I telling you all of this? Is it your sympathy I seek? Not at all.
That incident was a turning point in my life. It was the first time I ever felt the presence of God, which came to me as a voice in my head.
“Why are you crying?” the voice asked. “Don’t you understand what’s happening? You watch. You’ll see. There’s a reason for everything that’s come down in your life.” I was only ten years old at the time, but since that moment, I have always known that there was a force greater than me and my little existence. I was being shaped for the life I would lead.
According to Kabbalah, whether or not you see its significance at the time, everything in your life happens for a reason. Although you might believe this statement intellectually, if you look honestly at your life, you’ll probably find that you don’t act as though a beautiful design is really behind each event. Most people think their experiences are mostly random coincidences. According to Kabbalah, however, there is no such thing as coincidence. Everything is preordained.
That being true, any challenge you encounter in life is part of a design whose intent is to help you grow and change. The more arduous the difficulty, the greater the opportunity it affords you to mend your ways in order to connect to the Light. This is true even of the worst situations. In fact, the more negativity there is in an interaction, the more potential there will be to reveal Light.
If this story inspires you to connect with the blessings that are concealed within your challenges, please post your story below to encourage and inspire others!
Have a great week.
Love and Light,
Karen
