Life Has to be Hard

I strongly dislike this doctrine. I don't like that there has to be "opposition in all things" (2 Nephi 2:11). I don't like that we have to struggle in order to grow. But it's true. We need hardships in order to gain the experience we need to gain the growth that we need to fulfil the purpose of our existence.

Sure, we could avoid opposition, but in doing so, we would also avoid necessary growth. An infant that never undergoes the struggle of trying to stand and walk will never gain the muscle they need to become fully-functioning, upright human beings. Yes, I understand that some people, for reasons beyond their control, cannot walk, and yet are fully capable human beings. I simply mean to say that if we avoid opposition, we also avoid growth.

Even so, it is still somewhat tempting to try to avoid opposition, even when I know that I will miss out on opportunities to gain strength if I do so, but if there's one thing that I hate more than the fact that life is full of challenges, it's that I often find that I lack the strength I need to confidently face those challenges. I dislike hardship and I dislike weakness, but avoiding the first ensures the second. However, reducing the second will soften the blow of the first.

Gaining strength by facing opposition will take some of the edge off of the opposition we face. It's very much like exercising. If we exercise by lifting weights, that will make us stronger, which will make it easier for us to lift the weights that life forces us to carry anyway. If we exercise by walking or running, we will gradually become able to walk / run faster and farther and with less effort. Opposition gives us strength. In that sense, opposition is a good thing, but is it a necessary thing?

A few days ago, I heard a man thank God for his obligations, and I remember wondering whether or not I was grateful for my obligations. As I've admitted, I don't like that life is hard, and my obligations often require me to do things that I sometimes find difficult to do. However, I know that blessings, including strength, come from fulfilling my obligations, and I often wouldn't do those things unless I felt obligated to do them.

Most people avoid hardship when they can. People tend to take the easier of two roads or the more convenient of two options. People who avoid the challenges that they don't have to face also avoid some of the strength they could have gained from facing challenges. There are some people, myself probably included, that would avoid all, or at least most, challenges, if we could get away with it. But we can't. We need the strength that comes from facing challenges, and God knows that we wouldn't face those challenges and gain that strength unless we had to. So, God filled life with challenges so we wouldn't be able to go more than ten feet in any direction without encountering some opposition. God gave me obligations because He knew that I wouldn't rise to the challenge of doing those things I'm obligated to do unless I felt obligated to do them. He made the challenges of life almost entirely unavoidable so we would not be able to get through life without gaining some strength in the process.

Spiritual strength is necessary for our salvation and exaltation. God sent us here because we had to face challenges and gain experience in order to reach our full potential and become like Him. Life has to be difficult because we need to face challenges to gain spiritual strength, and some of us wouldn't do that unless we had to. It's still one of my least-favorite pieces of doctrine, but at least I know why it's true. God wants me to become Godlike, and I would like to become Godlike. But in order to do that, I need to face challenges that I am strongly tempted to try to avoid. That's probably part of why God made those challenges almost unavoidable. Life has to be difficult because if we could get through life without facing any difficulty, there'd be very little point in going through life at all.