Our disfigured world hurts us from time to time. But we should always rise from our knees, crawl and get up with all our might. The spirit must be awake. We need courage, resourcefulness and a sense of humor, otherwise we would have gone crazy a long time ago. Joy does not come from meditation and autosuggestion. Only when we solve real problems in our lives will joy seep into our hearts, like a ray of light through heavy clouds of anxiety. Joy is also connected with the grace of God…

 

An Orthodox Christian knows that the Lord rules the world, cares for its preservation and turns all negative things that people do into good. It’s up to us to choose: how to direct our will to reasonable behavior, and how to live through earthly problems properly. At the first stage, we need to give up gross sins. Sorrows often befall us through our own fault. A person gets drunk, then he has a headache, and next he is fired from his job, and so on. And then he complains that life is unfair, and God is to blame for something. However, sometimes a person really leads a very good life. He does not offend anyone, he works hard, he is honest and decent, he prays to God and honors Him. But misfortunes come, and he loses heart. Then he must remember Job the Long-suffering and Christ Himself. In fact, pain and sorrow cannot be avoided while we live on earth for these short years and decades. Sometimes we have such pain that we don’t even want to pray or do anything. But we should force ourselves to do something, fill our lives with work and creative activity, and then little by little we can overcome despondency and depression. And the most important path here is to start helping other people.”

– Article from pravoslavie.ru,  Zaonikiev Monastery

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