We are made to carry heavy burdens, it is what our species was designed to do.  To willfully develop an aversion to difficulty is to erode what makes us human and in turn destroy our humanity. Those that climb the tallest peaks seek something inside themselves which can only be revealed through the high cost of difficulty. Where there is perseverance through pain, there is a reward which can never be shared with anyone who doesnt pay the full price for it. To feel truly alive, to occupy the full space of greatness in which God created us to be, we must embrace the hardest things available to us and endure through the suffering to arrive at the other side. Humanity is awe inspiring but only because we have achieved so much by risking all that we have. Our greatest accomplishments were always shrouded in uncertainty, doubt and apprehension. The moments we are most inspired by have never once promised a safe outcome. Death is a possible end state for the advances we most proudly display. If there is no risk, then no event of accomplishment would be worth mentioning. The purests, the ones that seek to know what being a human can truly mean always seek these things which are the hardest to achieve. All of us on earth know what they know, but we can never feel what they feel until we pay the cost ourselves. Whether it is launching to the moon, summiting the highest peaks or forcing your way 1,000 miles alone through the Alaskan wilderness with a team of dogs. Life is not worth mentioning if you perpetually choose to always do what is easy and convenient. To be a human, to be alive and living rather than just simply existing is to do hard things. It is our nature, it is the purpose of our creation. To exist only partially is to welcome decay and disease, the likes of which spread easily and become impossible to remove. Worse than that it becomes fiercely contagious spreading illness throughout all the species. People climb so that they can be fully alive.

Each lifeform thoughtfully placed on this earth was created with a purpose in mind. There is not one random anomaly that can be pointed to as a reference for having absolutely no significance to the precision timing of this symbiotic blue orb. Life is not random, and even if it is, we should do our best to make order of the environment around us. To define a target and organize priorities in which to achieve it. Putting first things first. Starting with our immediate front and working slowly outward onto bigger tasks. Even if randomness is the purpose of our existence, we will achieve far more than those who choose to perpetually be a victim of chaos. There is a sort of inertia in the momentum of accomplishment through discipline. We were created for a specific purpose. To deny that divine gift is to deny and suppress the true nature of who we are. Who we were born and bred to be. Man is meant to be triumphant and battle tested. Man is meant to persist and persevere. Above all else, man is meant to do hard things. If we relent, we risk putting all of humanity forever at risk of extinction.

The balance of man is to be tested and measured while still fostering the delicate equilibrium of nature. To have absolute command of the earth and yet to let it wander in an adolescent and pure manner is the catalyst of our being. To be challenged, tested, to be in pain and yet persist, to struggle and to overcome, is what we were biologically created to do. Humans are some of the most adaptive creatures on earth. When we have a purpose that requires us to struggle and endure, we will always be the best versions of ourselves. Not because we want to be but because we have to be. To hold the gift of success after enduring through extreme discomfort is when we will always feel the most accomplished and achieved. Our armor will never be more impenetrable. It is when our self esteem is at its highest, our self worth is the strongest. It is when we are spiritually the soundest. To drive through adversity, to adapt, overcome, fail and persist, this is the essence of our human spirit. Whether you believe that we crawled out of a scum swamp or that mankind was created by God. Both foundations find commonality and faith in celebrating the absolute tenacity that is the essence of our human spirit. Humans have clawed their way forward in an impressive manner. Our will and our desire to improve is what has given us the world we live in today. This drive forward, the practice of mental toughness and endurance through suffering is a perishable skill that must be honed constantly. It is hard work staying vigilant. It takes no skill at all to slip into the folds of excuses and aversion to duty. When we begin to push back against our created purpose, we feel guilt and self depredation. Laziness is like a drug. Creeping slowly into your life and enticing you to stay unwell. Darkness will creep in as it always has. The enemy wants to sow seeds of doubt, lying to us about the true nature of our greatness. A massive problem facing humanity today is that Instead of a struggling individual correcting their trajectory into weakness, they become seduced by the disease of mediocrity as it pulls them slowly under into its icy grip. Humans suffocate under the compounding weight of self pity. They begin to decay and kill what our divinely gifted nature was created to be. In an act of desperation similar to a wounded animal they will  lash out at those who make them feel uncomfortable about the betrayal. Many do not wish to stop their actions so instead will decimate all those that preserve the obligation of our born spirit. They become chaotic, lashing out and attacking everything that is coveted by those who have continued on with the disciplined path.  A modern day stoning begins and all those that feel shame from their decay join in the assault. Fear spreads wicked distrust and irrationality. We must at all cost never let the portion of ourselves atrophy that is meant to do work. When we do, we are degrading society as a whole. We were designed to carry a load and we must never shy away from what we are capable of and created to do. If we lose this battle, we will begin to weaken our species slowly over time. Generation after generation will be granted a pass from difficulty. When the time arises that there is no other option but to lean in and suffer, we will have lost our ability to do so. To know how to suffer is a gift. Humankind can be destroyed, we must fight to preserve it. 

 Purposeful life is one that is not wasted on indiscriminate action. It is not useful to suffer and struggle for the purpose of struggling alone. Knowing the balance between what work is worthy of our time and what is not is key. We must not just work for the sake of work, but rather know what things are worthy of our energy spent. When we align our ability to persevere through pain and apply that in a purposeful direction, there will truly be nothing that can stop our achievement. We will feel fully alive and fulfilled. 

“The following poem is about a sled dog and was written by a close friend of mine. It was the inspiration for the piece written above.”

I’d Die in the Traces

I’d die in the traces

If given the chance

Pull until

My heart explodes in my chest

I may need someone to save me from myself 

Written by - A Friend

A sled dog is born to pull. It is their nature to do so. No replacement of activity could substitute what they are physically and spiritually created to do. The dogs are called to this action by nature and feel a great desire to fulfill their legacy even when raised in a sterile land far from the call of such work. We can not deny their created purpose. Wouldn’t the sled dog not see death as the only acceptable alternative to duty? Would saving the sled dog from himself truly be for his benefit or would it not be a persecution of purgatory? The dog is born to run, born to pull. If denied his God given gift he will surely be in a state of constant turmoil. He will find vices that decay his spirit in order to fill the void of the absence of the true work he was called to perform. Perhaps it is better to die in the traces than rot from underuse. It is a sin to not fully embrace the gifts which God has individually bestowed upon us. If we were designed to be under load then we should seek to carry a load. We should embrace God's grace jubilantly for constructing us to carry such burdens, to do hard things. What a blessing it is to be able to prevail to God's full glory.