By: Joseph J. Mazzella

“Well, what are you going to do?” I asked myself as I looked in the bathroom mirror.  I was a young dad with three small kids.

My substitute teaching work had dried up and I was forced to take a job at a local lumber mill.  It paid very little and the work was hours of lifting and carrying heavy lumber.  That morning I had pulled a muscle in my back there and had driven home for lunch in pain.  Every time I moved it seemed to hurt worse.

Slowly I walked into the bathroom to clean the morning’s grime off of my hands.  That is when I saw myself looking sadly back at me from the mirror.  I wondered again how I had gotten here.  I hated this job with every fiber of my being.  I wanted nothing more than to quit it but I knew I couldn’t afford to.  After asking the question I just stood there looking at my tired face while I washed my hands.  I stumbled out to the kitchen and quietly ate the sandwich my wife had made me.  I looked out the window and saw my kids playing joyfully in the backyard.  I watched them for a long while.  Then I smiled, swallowed four aspirin, and went back to work.

I think all of us have those times in our lives when we are struggling and hurting.  We wonder why life is so hard.  We wonder how we can go on.  We wonder why God is letting us go through this.  It is then that we have to ask ourselves: “What are you going to do?”  I think the answer is that we just have to keep trying.  We have to keep living.  We have to keep loving.

We have to keep doing our best and let God take care of the rest. God loves us all and God is with us all through the good times and the bad.  And while our greatest joy may come from the good times, our greatest learning comes from the bad.  Embrace all of your days here then.  Learn much.  Love more.  Live well.  Do all you can to become the person you were meant to be and help God make this world a better place for us all.