problems and prosperity.

Life happens to us in extremes. We have good seasons and bad seasons, and sometimes these seasons happen at the same time. I have come to accept that for every joy there is the potential for immense sorrow, and for every problem, a chance for prosperity. Our success sits itself squarely between these two seemingly oppositional forces, asking us to both accept and change, to both move and be still.

In the mental health world, there is a whole treatment built around the idea that we must integrate opposites to survive, aptly called dialectical behavioral therapy. It asks the client to find balance in a body where emotions are intense and present and dialectical, where feelings indicate reality and can be difficult to overcome. And isn't life just like that? Full of happiness and sorrow, hope and despair. The dialectical oppositions pull at our souls, demanding an answer and a response, asking us to both stay and proceed forward.

One of my favorite stories that represents this concept is where God leads the enslaved Israelites out of Egypt, and towards the promise land. It was not an easy journey by any means, and the Bible is full of examples of their faith and doubt, over many, many years. From the very start, they really had to trust that God was leading them somewhere good, somewhere better than where they were. It says that when they left Egypt, the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. It also states that He wanted to take them on a shortcut through Philistine land, but knew the Israelites may turn back if faced with war. So.

He went ahead of them and led them by the safest route to the Red Sea. And when the Egyptians pursued them, He went behind them and kept them safe. Ahead and behind, forward and back.

Problem and prosperity.

Can you imagine how frightening this time was for the Israelites? How confusing? To be led out of slavery only to have their enemies pursue them? To be taken out of captivity only to be trapped by the Red Sea? To not be able to see how they were going to get to the promised land, and to face incredible, seemingly impassible opposition?

But God did not falter. He took their circumstances and their doubt and their desperate belief that there was prosperity to come and he balanced it. He kept them safe, despite their situation, and he led them forward, though they didn't know how or where or even when.

He taught the Israelites to face their problems.

But also to believe in prosperity.

He taught them that while life may be dark and messy and uncertain, there is a light leading them, going ahead and following behind.

He taught them that He would fight and that they need only be still.

And in dialectical behavior therapy, it is the same. We teach our clients that it's OK to be where they are, as they are simultaneously growing and changing into who they wish to be. We teach them that we can't change that which we cannot accept, we cannot will ourselves out of a place we don't wish to acknowledge in the first place. We have to stop fighting because change does not come from a place of hatred, a place of spite for ourselves or our circumstances.

It comes from acceptance.

And it happens in the spaces between problem and prosperity.

I am learning to stand in the middle of the sea, in between everything I wish to leave in the past and everything I hope for in the future.

I am learning peace in the present, right where I am, in the midst of all that propels me forward and threatens to drag me down.

Because I know that there is light.

Leading me forward,

and protecting me from behind.

I don't have to choose between the ends of the spectrum, because they both make up a part of me, they are both a part of life. 

I will have problems.

But I will also have prosperity.

And I don't have to fight.

I need only be still.