High Tide or Low Tide

I've come to a pretty remarkable realization lately. In 23 years I've learned that life is not easy. In fact, it's quite hard. There are ups and there are downs. There are highs and there are lows. Sometimes, it's low after low after low; others, it's a string of highs with the occasional low. Sometimes the highs feel higher than the lows are low and maybe, more frequently, the lows feel lower. One thing is for sure though, there will definitely be lows mixed in with the highs.

It makes sense for highs and lows to come together. If we have the occasional high mixed in with everyday life, then our everyday life would quickly become our low and the mixed in high would be the high. And if we only had highs then they would no longer be highs but merely everyday life. So, it makes perfect sense to have highs and lows mixed together.

It's a good thing they come together. I would rather have highs with lows, than no highs at all. When was the last time you had an average day and thought to yourself, "wow, I just love life. Today was amazing." We need highs to appreciate everything we've been given. It seems so simple to me, yet to others the concept is hard to grasp.

Currently, I am reading a book called Crimes Against Logic: Exposing the Bogus Arguments of Politicians, Priests, Journalists, and Other Serial Offenders. It was while reading this book, which is actually pretty good, that I began to think about writing this post. In the book, the author, Jamie Whyte, talks about inconsistencies in people's thoughts and arguments. He says there are inconsistencies everywhere but many times they are not easily recognized. He uses the example of evil and existence of an all-powerful, all-good god. He says, "Their inconsistency is not immediately obvious, but inconsistent they are. An all-good god would want to avoid any evil he could and an all-powerful god would be able to avoid any evil he wanted. Hence, if there was an all-good and all-powerful god, there would be no evil." He continues by defining what could be evil. "By 'evil' I mean nothing metaphysical: toothache, trailer-park destroying tornadoes, or torture will do."

How sad I was for this man. He's an extremely bright, well-educated man; and yet, he doesn't understand the beauty and blessings of having highs and lows. I wonder if he thinks God, being all-powerful and all-good, should take away all of our trials and our lows? Would our life be that much better if there was no heart-ache, no pain, and no sorrow? Would we ever think to ourselves that a certain day was extraordinary and made us grateful to be alive? Or would everyday just be average? Days that make us grateful to be alive are what make people happy. Would an "all-good" god take away the ability to have those days by taking away the contrast?

God is all-powerful and He is all-good. I know this for a fact. And, it is because He is all-good that there is evil.

Isaiah 45:7 "I form the light and create the darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things."

And He does this because He loves us. He wants us to learn and grow and be happy; all of which come from having highs and lows. Without them, we would have no understanding of what happiness is.

2 Nephi 2:11 "For is must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must need remain dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility."

Life is hard. It is full of lows. The past six months my life have been sprinkled with some of what I think have been the lowest lows of my life so far. And yet, I am encouraged by the knowledge that God loves us. It is through these lows that we find our highs and truly appreciate them. I am also encouraged by the knowledge of what's to come. As Frank Sinatra put it

The best is yet to come and won't that be fine
You think you've seen the sun, but you ain't seen it shine

Things may get tough. The lows may get lower. But there are highs yet to happen that will surpass any lows we have or will experience. I end with a final quote:

Habakkuk 3:18-19 "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments."