As a Hard as Nails missionary, most days are not all sunshine and roses. Like most things worthwhile, it is challenging. That is one thing that you learn from being a missionary, that you need to fight and struggle for things worthwhile. We need to fight for the 
Lord and live a life with Him at the center. Living a true Christian life is not easy.
It is the road less traveled, and there is a reason for that. But again, if it was easy, then it wouldn’t mean as much as it does. I think our generation has lost the conviction to fight for what we believe in; to give everything they have and lay down their life for truth. If they do fight for something, it is motivated more by feeling and emotion than truth.
I remember going with my dad and brother to go watch 1917 back in 2019. Set in the midst of the first World War, it is a great movie full of drama and suspense. There is one thing depicted really well in the movie that I would like to expand upon. It is the bravery and willingness of the young soldiers to give their lives for what they believe in.
These men were my age running out of trenches straight towards German machine guns, knowing they would probably die, but they were willing to suffer anyways. They were willing to suffer and die for something worthwhile. That generation was so different than the one we live in now. We live in such an egocentric world where so many people think only about themselves so often. We have lost the ability to suffer well. We have lost the ability to look not to what we do for our identity, but to God.
We must regain our ability to stand firm in what we believe and be willing to suffer and even die for it. To learn to do this, we must look to the greatest example of suffering and dying for something worthwhile. Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross. “Christ proved his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 8:28). In Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross, we see the greatest example of giving one's life and suffering for something worthwhile. Let us ask our Lord to give us His heart, and His certainty in what is true.
At the end of the day, we are all going to have to suffer in this life, and it’s all about what we do with that suffering. The secret to happiness is suffering, because only through the suffering of the cross is the glory of resurrection. We all have to learn once again not be afraid of suffering. In the end, I am so grateful that every day is not just sunshine and roses, because it is teaching me to fight and suffer for something worthwhile.
Photo Credits:
https://unsplash.com/photos/oTHXpT6nJsE
https://unsplash.com/photos/5FHv5nS7yGg
https://unsplash.com/photos/nJI8WAqpn7Y
https://unsplash.com/photos/1-xQcAWJukI
https://unsplash.com/photos/5FsE88h3Wak