Stimulus and Response

H

uman character can be guarded from the way people respond to day-to-day events. Everything that happens affects one in one way or another. The kind of response we make to what is going on around us is determined by our mentality. If one is unmindful of God, one will react in whatever manner one’s own desires and interests demand. If, however, one’s faith is strong, each and every event throughout one’s entire life reminds one of God; the entire range of one’s emotions is then concentrated not on oneself, but on God.

Fortunes in life never cease to fluctuate. Ease is soon followed by hardship. It is never long before praise and approval give way to criticism and accusation. No sooner do events begin to follow a satisfactory course than they suddenly take a turn for the worse. Ups and downs of this nature are all in the nature of a trial. If one is to succeed in life’s trial, these changes of fortune should turn one more and more towards God and away from the self, and, humble and resigned when stricken by misfortune, one should be thankful in one’s heart for the happiness and comfort granted by God.

People’s response to various circumstances is being put to the test on earth. This is what their worldly trial really consists of. If given wealth and power, they become proud, then they are failures, but if they remain humble under the same circumstances, they have succeeded. They have failed if they are obstinate and contemptuous towards their rivals or opponents: if they are unjust to others, they are bound to come to grief themselves: if they are fair to all and sundry, they will emerge triumphant from life’s trial.