Have you ever made great spiritual leaps forward then suddenly hit a brick wall that gave you grief or got side-swiped by an unexpected problem and then wondered why the trouble?

“I was making so much progress,” refrains a common complaint. And then adds, “Why did this difficulty arise?”

It would be nice if we never had to face problems. If life on earth were as easy as strolling down the street on a sunny day, listening to happy birds singing in the trees, and looking forward to a peaceful dinner with pleasant company we could take it easy more frequently.

But this idealistic lifestyle doesn’t happen, very often anyway. Issues arise. Challenges present themselves. Conflict needs to be resolved. People suffer and need healing.

I’ve come to accept that earthly existence is constantly filled with opportunities to grow spiritually and be useful.

Some people might reword the above to “…earthly existence is filled with problems and troubles.” But I’d like to protest that sentiment. It seems a backward way of looking at the hills and valleys of the human experience.

Spiritually considered, life is good. God is our Life, our eternal Life, and the more we identify with God as Life, the better our experience with life on earth gets.

There is a spiritual demand on humans, though, to grow into a right understanding of Life as blessed. This spiritual demand presents itself as continuous opportunities to demonstrate Life’s goodness.

It’s like playing video games, which I rarely do, but have watched my son play. The more you master the game, the higher levels you attain, and are presented with more challenging conquests.

As we grow spiritually we are presented with increased opportunities to prove what we’ve learned.

So new challenges and opportunities should be expected, and looked at from a positive frame of mind.

They are not deep holes to stumble into, dread and complain about. They are mountains to climb and get higher views.

Relish the hike! Enjoy the scenery—the lessons learned along the way—and gain from the adventure.

If we get lazy and lethargic about our spiritual progress, heavenly law has a way of pushing us forward and making us move again. The “push” may feel like a trouble or pain, but the real thrust is to promote our spiritual mindedness—to keep us growing in our understanding of Truth, to leave a troublesome limiting belief behind and think more spiritual.

After we’ve successfully reaped the benefit of each opportunity to grow presented, we ultimately gain the final realization of Life in God where there are no troubles. And what a glorious day that is to strive for!