Let’s say you’ve received a gift from someone whom you love, could be your parent, your spouse, your friend etc. How are you going to feel, about the gift itself and about the giver? Undoubtedly, you’ll be over the moon! Of course the gift means a lot and it strengthen more the relationship that you both have for each other!

Let’s say, a gift of yours is a brand new car, would you be sad or extremely happy? Jolly extremely happy, tear of joy will even stream down your face! Do you know that a gift comes with good emotions, responsibilities and some consequences too? Let’s see how as we going to use a car gift as an example.

The moment the giver hands you the car keys, everything about car is going to be your responsibility. Like keeping a car clean every time, car maintenance, fuel, car insurance, car service etc. How are you going to use your car? It’s your choice!

The giver won’t give terms and conditions about it. But certainly, it will sadden his or her heart if you recklessly treat your car and he or she will rejoice seeing you taking good care of your car and treat it as important!

Indeed a car will fulfill every purposes of yours and enjoying life to the fullest. So now, tell me, are you going to blame the giver if you run out of fuel? Are you going to complain everytime you take your car to service, even complain to the giver? When you’re on the journey, boom, flat tyre! Are you going to kick that tyre and shout the name of the person who gifted you a car, and say: ” so and so it’s your fault!?” What about if you involve in an accident, whom to blame, your giver? Certainly not!

Everything that will happen as troublesome and consequences on your car you will not blame your giver either your care or your giver too. If you will do that, it would mean that you’re not grateful about a gift and about a giver.

Everything about your car will cost your own pocket. Importance of your car will require you to do anything to keep it alive, safe and sound. And because of love that you have for your car will also prompts you to do any sacrifices because of it!

So here, we’ve given a gift of life by someone we call God or any deity we view as supreme to us. The moment he handed us with breath of life, then we go, we live! It’s our choice how we live our life: whether in good way or bad way but it does touches him the way we conduct our lives.

Life is a gift, a pure one! There are so many physical things to support and sustain life which shows that life does has a purpose. And life was meaningful from the beginning. To me life is like a tour guide that lead and show or touring us around just for us to see awer inspiring things and magnificent beauty of the universe and life itself. As we living , in cherishing this gift of life, there will be some responsibilities and consequences too.

It was our parents’ or our guardians’ duty or responsibility to cares for us since from infancy till we become independent. From being independent onwards, it’s our own responsibility to care of ourselves. So everything we do will cost us. It is our responsibility to feed, cleanse, protect our beings and do no harm to ourselves. But if we do things that will harm our beings we’ll face the consequences, I mean face the music!

There are things that we can’t take control of it. Must happen we like it or not! And there are things that we, ourselves, we are the causes to happen. When you look around the world, we as human we have a huge part in our suffering and our life isn’t pleasant! Namely, civil wars (led to blood shed); unemployment (led to crime), drugs, starvation, pestilences, death etc.

When tragedy strikes, we often blame life even saying “life is unfair” or put the blame to God, even saying ” it’s God’s will take place!” So now we blame the Giver[God] and a gift [life] too about trails, troubles, challenges and hardships that we facing as we living here on earth.

Back to the example gift of a car, you won’t dare blame the giver( Could be your parent, your spouse etc) or the gift itself (car) whenever you face any challenges pertaining the use of it, would you?

Challenges, trails, problems, or any sort of unpleasant things that make us feel pain as we living, we can’t blame life [life is a gift] hence we can’t blame the giver. These two things has nothing to do with hardships we facing in our daily lives.

Sometimes we should blame our decision, I mean our choice on how we chose to use our life. You can’t blame life and God that you’re in massive debts, would you for example? Would you blame God and life because you taking nyaope, tick or crystal myth or any kind of drugs, would you blame God and life that you’re a drunkard because of them?

As we enjoying the gift of life, we’ll also experience hardships as well. Hardships challenges our mental power. Like they way or how do we deal with problems depend on us, it is our responsibility. And the way we choose to live our life too, consequences will result, if we choose to do good, consequences will be good but if we choose to do bad , consequences will be bad. Inshort, we reap what we sow!

Hardships and bad situations that we’re facing make life meaningless and unpleasant too but life is has nothing to do with it, life is life. Life doesn’t have any alliance with hardships! If it wasn’t because of life,we wouldn’t be alive today, despite any situation you’re in right now but what matter you’re alive! No can like to blame with something he didn’t committed, isn’t? So how long we would keep blaming life?

Others used to say “life is would be so boring without hardships and if everything was smooth in life just like slippery of butter in the hot pan, life would be blah blah blah!” That’s a thought of someone who is numb, we’re numb because of all the chaos we facing. Our bodies and our minds because are exposed to hardships, yes, we feel like that; we “thought” life without an inch of pain would be boring.

Remember, do you know that anything that’s gets inside human body let’s say you ate spoiled food, I mean food poisoning, by nature our body would react. How? It will depend on one’s digestive system but as for me, is either I will vomit or I will have a running stomach. Human body also react when something occuring outside of it just like when it encounter something that is so scary or something brutally happened before your eyes.

So, how much more with a coalition of pains that pierces through our body year in year out, day in day out!

Our bodies were never created to feel any kind of single pain. Look, what effects does our body receive when we facing something painful? Is one gaining weight in a normal way ? Or losing weight? Anxiety, depression, stress etc consume us in such a way that we even become sleepless in night, we swallow pain killer and do drugs and alcohol just to tame pain away.

If suffering was meant to be in our life then that means there was no need for physicians, there was no need for production of medics, so ease us during pain and. So all sort of hardships it is something that we encountered during our life course, so that why our bodies deal with them head on!

If we as humans can manage to live life and avoid problems that’s would be better. Yes, like I said before there are things that are beyond our power like natural disasters for instance. There are practical steps being taken to minimise number of people dying when these take place, we grateful for that! But in most of the unrest that is going in the world, we as humans we are a cause of them and then instead of blaming our governments; ourselves as well, we push the blame on others, especially God.

Those who read the Holy book, Bible, how long they must keep blaming or put blame to God whenever the tragedy take place, “it is God’s will?!” But it is in there in their bible, black and white is written “…but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one” 1John 5:19 my question is to you : to whom this verse refers to as “the wicked one” God or Satan? Maybe this quoted verse will give you an answer : “So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him” Revelation 12:9 so again my question to you is : who is misleading the entire inhabited earth, is it God or Satan? Now who’s will is taking place here on earth, is it God’s or Satan’s ? So why it’s so easy though to blame God?

If only as humans we can look life with different view, with deep eye then we would see that life is not our enemy but it is on our side, it’s our pillar, our strength and source of all living things, especially us as wonderful creatures human being. Life’s good because is keeping up with us but situations and hardships denials, but we keep living, though!

We do well if we weep with those who are weeping. We do well if encouraging, strengthen one another. We do well if we restore hope to those who losing it. We also do well if we sympathize with those who are moaning too. Because these last days are hard to every one and are critical to deal with solely. Hence, life is our life line!

The author here, he’s not a paster or reverend or theologist nor! He’s not preaching the sermon, or forcing people to change their beliefs. But he’s kinder challenging the thinking ability of the reader on how he or she sees things, just reasoning with you; sharing of some ideas with you!

Moreover he’s just a normal person, hence who’s trying to maneuver his life between these unending hardships that he’s facing during his life course, because he’s human after all. And what he covers here is that, is the way how now he perceives life and he has learned to blame what suited to be blamed and not blame what’s not suited to be. He put the blame on it BUT not to life!

Enjoy life in the fullest but on how you choose to enjoy it, it’s your choice! It would be more sound if one can stay away in troubling his or her own life with unnecessary problems. Remember, life’s a gift and better blame on it [hardships] but not life!

I hope all I covered here will give you a picture of my thoughts even though I’m not perfect but I pray that may it not offend you but instead may it prompt you to look life as innocent as it is. I would like to resume here for now till my next writing, thank you!

Composed by:

S’thembiso Sydney Msezane.