Finding the Good in Life’s Challenges – How Faith Transforms Struggles into Growth

After creating the world and humanity, God declares about the entirety of creation: “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). God testifies that His creation is good. If this is true, how can it be that the number of people suffering from depression is skyrocketing, so much so that depression has been dubbed “the epidemic of our generation”?

According to studies in the Western world, about 10% of the global population will experience depression at some point in their lives. Beyond that, most of us face various life challenges including financial struggles, difficulties with children, late marriage, health issues, and more. So where is the “good” in life hiding, and does it even exist?

Falling into the Abyss or Rising to the Heights?

Every challenge we receive in life has an eternal purpose to elevate us to a higher spiritual place. These trials are intended to help us grow and become greater, nobler people. Often, hardship pushes us toward strengthening ourselves, self-refinement, and spiritual elevation. It is a time when new doors open to deeper faith and trust, when our prayers to God intensify, and we lean on Him knowing that only He can truly improve our situation.

Many who have gone through immense struggles testify that during those periods, they felt a closeness to God unlike anything they had experienced before or since. They admit they do not wish to relive the hardship, yet they feel deep longing for that profound closeness to the Divine.

The difficulties in our lives may be unpleasant, but from an eternal and higher perspective, they are indeed good. They can be compared to spiritual weights that help us achieve true self-fulfillment. These challenges transform us into a better version of ourselves, and this self-improvement is in essence, the ultimate purpose of human life.

When Faith Is Absent

If we face challenges without faith — as is the case for many among the nations of the world and, sadly, some of our own brethren, these trials can turn into crises, spiraling into the depths of depression. A mistaken view that sees hardship as bad luck, random fate, or a meaningless accident strips the experience of its essence and purpose.

However, when we view challenges through the lens of faith — knowing that every detail is planned with precision for our ultimate good, then the trial gains meaning, and the experience lifts us to new spiritual heights.

Traveling Through Time

Despite the challenges that sometimes accompany life, as a whole it contains far more good than bad. If each of us were to list all the blessings in our lives compared to the difficulties, the gap would be staggering. The mistaken feeling that life contains more bad than good comes from our human tendency to focus on the negative.

For example, news broadcasts almost always center on disasters and pessimistic predictions about the economy, security, or other matters. Similarly, an average person may dwell more on worries than on the many blessings in their world — often stressing about things that are not even part of the present moment, such as fears about the future (“What will be?”) or regrets over the past.

Living in the Present

When we view the past through faith — knowing everything that happened was truly for the good, since nothing occurs without Divine oversight — and when we cut off anxiety about the future by trusting that God, as an all-powerful and loving Father, will care for us, we can begin to truly live in the present.

As the saying goes: “A person is where their thoughts are.” If one disconnects from yesterday and tomorrow through faith and trust in God, and instead focuses on the present reality, they will see how much good already exists in their life and how many blessings and acts of kindness God is bestowing upon them at every moment.

Just as in our personal lives there is far more good than bad, so too in the world as a whole: the vast majority of people have enough to eat and are not starving, they enjoy health and are not in hospitals, they marry and do not remain alone, they have a roof over their heads and are not wandering the streets.

The Overflowing Goodness in Creation

Beyond basic needs, our lives are filled with countless luxuries that are not essential for survival but are given to us by God out of kindness, including color vision, a variety of fruits and vegetables with diverse colors and flavors, the beauty of the natural world, treasures of nature, the wonder of music, and so many other gifts.

All these were created for us to enjoy, as part of the “very good” world God made out of His love for humanity.