The JewishMOM.com Despair-Busting Challenge: Week 2
Until Purim, every week I will be featuring a new quotation from Rabbi Shalom Arush about overcoming despair and emotional distress through emuna. Enjoy!
Things are crazy here in Nachlaot this week.
Far too intense for me to write an update about what’s going on (and far more intense, even, than when I wrote the same excuse for not writing about the situation last week!)
But it HAS been a totally awesome week for working on my emuna!
Here’s this week’s Rav Arush quotation that absolutely hit the spot this week:
Those who live with emuna that Hashem’s Divine Providence is always for the best are happy and confident. They don’t suspect Hashem of leading them down the wrong road. Such individuals resemble those who make an intercity bus trip: They’re sure that the driver knows both how to drive the bus and how to choose the best route. With nothing to worry about, they’re free to relax in their seats, gaze out the window, and enjoy each minute of the trip. They reach their destination happily, and go about their tasks with vigor.
Those who lack emuna are like nervous passengers on the same intercity bus. As backseat drivers, they think they can drive the bus better than the company driver. They also think they are capable of choosing a better and swifter route. Frustrated, they try to drive the bus from their seat in row 12. Each minute passes with bitterness and frustration, for they’re sure that the driver doesn’t know what he’s doing or where he’s going. They’re worried that the bus is travelling east rather than west. They think the driver’s going either too fast or too slow. Those same worried passengers suffer substantial emotional stress because they lack faith in the bus driver. They reach their destinations nerve-wracked and completely worn out.
Let’s pause for a moment and consider the profound difference between the two types of passengers in the intercity bus example: Both pay the same amount for a ticket, ride the same bus, and arrive at the same exact destination at the very same time. Yet the first type of passenger reaches the destination with happiness and complete emotional health, while the second type is a nearly-incapacitated bundle of nerves.
Which type of passenger would you prefer to be?…
No one can escape the fact that life doesn’t always proceed along the lines of our personal plans and expectations. The unexpected variables that each of us must deal with lead us down our designated path of tikkun. Why complain, cry, and rant when we can easily strengthen ourselves in emuna and live pleasant lives? All we have to do is to trust the “driver of the bus,’ our beloved Creator who’s capably leading the universe as a whole and each of us in particular on a designated route.
Like a trusting passenger, the more we strengthen our emuna that Hashem does everything for our ultimate best, the happier we arrive at any destination in life.
Reprinted from the Garden of Emuna by Rav Shalom Arush (translated by Rabbi Lazer Brody). For more info call 972-52-2240696
Image courtesy of Flickr.com use Alan Cleaver
ain ode milvado
Keep it coming, gal!
Much strength to you, your family and our Nachla’ot community. May we travel from Tohu to Ashreinu, going from strength to strength.