THROUGH HARDSHIP, TO THE STARS

efforts to bring those plans to fruition. Anyone who lacks the will is like an idling motor, burning fuel and going nowhere. Complacency and a sense of luxury can be even greater subverting factors that affect progress, than despair and devastation. By no means does this imply that adversity is itself beneficial. It is not. But it can be the spark which ignites the fuel of our souls and drives us onwards to greater things. It can be the source of our initiative and the force which drives us forward. In the face of adversity, our hidden capacities come to the fore and it becomes possible for us to reach heights we have never dreamed of. But for all this, there has to be the will to do so. There has to be the will to stop wallowing in self-pity and to take action. It is not ease, but effort; not facility, but difficulty, which makes a man. Per ardua ad astra. Through hardship, to the stars. The Pleasant and the Unpleasant God has placed unpleasant things alongside the pleasant things of life. Just as the rose bush, along with its exquisite flowers, also possesses piercing thorns, so also does life contain an amalgam of both pleasing and displeasing objects. This is the way God has created the world. There is nothing for us to do but to fit in with this order of nature that He has laid down. Much as we may try, it is impossible for us to have things any other way. In situations of hardship, all our hidden potential is brought to the fore.