COMPLEXITIES OF LIFE

Have we ever thought for once the essence of living? Have we wondered what follows after our existence here? Do we sometimes feel like leaving this world and going to the place after here? Have we ever had questions regarding our existence here on earth; like what's our purpose for existence, why am I born into a particular country, why can't I be able to do whatever I want easily without undergoing any stress? If we've never had such feelings nor thought, we need to redress our daily lives, something isn't right somewhere.

Life brings upon us many challenges which either builds us into a better being or makes us quit from the part we are following. These challenges are the complexities associated with living. It may range from lack of finance to lack of love, lack of peace and happiness to lack of success and the list goes on and on.

The most difficult challenge an individual passes through is the need for happiness and peace of mind. Rarely can you see an individual who will tell you that he or she is happy and at peace with him or herself. Many factors lead to having a peace of mind but when those factors are not available one can't at peace with oneself let alone of having happiness. Take for instance a student whose CGPA is below one can never be happy, a man who finds it difficult to sponsor his children in school can hardly have a peaceful mind.

I'll categorise the factors responsible for this complexity into two, viz;

1. Material factors e.g money, wealth, children, family, etc
2. Emotional factors e.g betrayal, injustice, dishonesty, etc

Although the two factors can be linked, I'd rather discuss them in two ways rather than discussing them together due to how broad they are. I'll talk about the material factors today then later on the emotional factors.

Money or wealth is the parent factor responsible for lack of peace and happiness. A poor man can hardly fit into any societal class not find himself in any association. A rich man can not also fit into every association due to others richer than him or due to his prestige which prevents him from associating with the lesser groups. One can easily conclude that when you have money you have everything, one can also argue that money can't buy happiness nor peace of mind. Both statements are correct just to prove how complex life can be. Let's start with a young guy who is born into a middle class family. He struggles and keep on fighting, trying to make it in life either through education or business ventures. Finally he starts seeing money and his class in the society increases because he can easily afford many things. One seeing him at this point will easily conclude that the guy is living happily and in case he gets married and start having kids, everyone will believe that his life has been settled. But that isn't the ideal case. As one gets richer, the level of responsibilities increases. He becomes popular and might not handle the fame well leading to his downfall or lack of peace. Also he starts having security issues in the sense that he becomes a target arm robbery, kidnapping or any other form of security related issues. So how can he be at peace when he doesn't know what's coming for him? Though so many might argue that if his money is made via the right means he won't have any fears but we've seen people with clear minds most often victimised. This highlights how complex life can be, you think lack of wealth is your problem, you make the money other things come up which are challenging.

Most times also you might see the rich ones without children and the low class in the society with a lot more than they can even cater for. Other times you can see both having children who don't listen to their parents. Such is life. Everyone can't have the same thing all the time. That's why life is popular known as not being fair.

Now these factors don't last forever. It all depends on management and the way we handle ourselves in each situation. This is when God comes into play. When someone entrusts his life to God, He takes over all situations in life and in Him we can find inner peace. So one can easily conclude that material complexities of life tests us to know whether we're dependent or independent of God.