Challenge (Still)
In thinking about challenge, challenging times, and challenging situations it is easy to approach and look at them as momentary. At some point a challenge will be over come, a challenging time will pass, or a challenging situation will be resolved. What about when the challenge you are face with is timeless, not situation based and requires a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly (in other words constant) solution? How do you deal with those challenges then.
Looking back at the definition on the last post of what challenge is, the formal definition does not address when the challenge we face is a situation we like. How do you overcome a challenge that you enjoy so much? It's easy to say make a decision, be disciplined and keep working at it but we know it is not that easy.
I have no answer to how you solve this or deal with it effectively, not sure if there is supposed to be an answer as answers are finite, some solutions are not always that well defined.
Looking back at the definition on the last post of what challenge is, the formal definition does not address when the challenge we face is a situation we like. How do you overcome a challenge that you enjoy so much? It's easy to say make a decision, be disciplined and keep working at it but we know it is not that easy.
I have no answer to how you solve this or deal with it effectively, not sure if there is supposed to be an answer as answers are finite, some solutions are not always that well defined.
We live in a day and time where challenges seem to be in greater abundance than opportunities. While many people would encourage that we view our challenges as opportunities, this is quite a difficult request considering the nature of a challenge in and of itself.
Challenges can be untimely and overwhelming, especially when they are so appealing to us. Some challenges are complex and multi-layered whereby, if you resolve one portion of it, you make the other portion(s) worse by default. I, too, have faced challenges much like you have described. Sometimes it feels like there is no resolve; sometimes, the challenge is so captivating...and feels so right...that you don't even want there to be. These type of challenges are even hard to pray about. I mean, it seems easier to be delivered from something that you truly desire to be released from, but how do you ask God to remove something or someone that your heart is still holding on to? I even find myself wondering if I am allowing an opportunity to slip because I have misdiagnosed it as a challenge.
In any event, both challenges and opportunities have one thing in common, and that's their ability to test us; our fortitude, our belief system, and our courage. They both have a way of exposing us to ourselves and presenting very real and powerful learnings about who we are and what we desire. They also help us weed out individuals who are not for our best interest. Therefore, if the challenge itself does not ever subside, I suppose that the growth and personal processing experienced in the course of facing it makes the battle truly worth it.
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