"About seven centuries before Christ, the poet Homer wrote The Odyssey, the story of Odysseus, the great warrior who—after sacking the city of Troy in the Trojan war began a 10-year voyage to try to return to his native Ithaca. The voyage took so long because he faced shipwrecks, mutinies, storms, monsters, and other obstacles that kept him from reaching his goal. Finally, after deciding that Odysseus had suffered enough, the gods agreed to allow the weary warrior to return to his home and family. His trials were, they agreed, enough atonement for his mistakes.
In one sense, we are like Odysseus, on a long journey home. The crucial difference, however, is that unlike Odysseus, we can never "suffer enough" to earn our way back. The distance between heaven and earth is too great for us to atone for our mistakes. If we get home, it will have to be only by the grace of God" - Adult S.S, Lesson 12, pg 96
The journey of a christian is no different from the one of Greece's hero, Ulysses just like the paragraph above stated; it's completely full of trials (read this greek myth if you haven't, it's quite interesting ). Even the word odyssey means a long or an extended journey.
Once we came here on earth, our journey started, our odyssey commenced. I know you will bear with me that it's not really been always easy, in fact, it's mostly being challenging. It doesn't matter if we have wealth or not(people tend to think money ends all problems), we still suffer and face the numerous trials in life(temptations, sicknesses, losses,etc.).
If we compare our lives to that of Ulysses', it's quite similar. He went through hell before finally getting home. He faced vicious monsters like the cyclops, fiery creatures, luring sirens and so on whose purpose was just to cause destruction. Unfortunately, he was the only one left of the voyage aside all the numerous men he embarked the journey with.
Similarly, our lives are like that, but just like the highlighted paragraph explains, "we can never suffer enough ". The trials will keep on coming. The failures at work, the lures, the losses,etc. will never stop coming.
This doesn't mean we will/can never succeed in overcoming the trials or make it to our "destination". We can alright, but it's all up to us to seek the help we need for our journey.
Ulysses got a lot of help along the way which made him succeed at the long run. He couldn't have done it alone. It's the same with us. God Himself, His angels and other people He has chosen to help us on this journey are plentiful.
They are always there for us, but just like He has given us our choices, He never forces us to come to Him or to accept advices from people He has chosen for you, it's all our choices.
For now, there's no way all these tragedies of life will go away. All we can do is to seek for help from God because we can never do anything on our own. If we do that, we will be able to sail through just like the Greek hero did.
We will one day make it to our destination no matter how long it takes, no matter the pain and strife, no matter how hard life tests us (if only we abide with God of course). Believe that!
Thanks for having time to read and may God be with us all. 🌹 :)
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