Repost - Rain Will Make the Flowers Grow

The stories that shape us rarely come from ease. They come from struggles, failures, and how we rise to meet them. We don’t look back with pride at what was easy. We remember the storms we survived.

This episode delves into the hero’s journey as more than just storytelling; it’s a pattern of real growth. From comfort to challenge, loss to resilience, struggle to transformation.

Through examples like Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and personal reflections on divorce and parenting, we explore how adversity builds character and gives meaning to our lives.

Listen now to reframe how you see challenges and recognize the strength they bring.

Subscribe and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
What in life deserves our time and attention and what
things don't.
I hope that as we consider thatquestion, along with other
topics on this show, that we canall learn to live our lives
just a little more intentionally.
This is Seth Roberts.
Thanks for joining me onSkipping Stones.
We are made by our hardestmoments.

(00:28):
Have you ever felt proud oversomething that was easy for you?
I mean, I suppose it's possibleto be proud of something like
natural good looks orintelligence, but when you think
of your life and how you got towhere you are today, do you
think of the hard times or doyou think of the easy times?
Did you ever enjoy playing agame where you were guaranteed

(00:49):
to win?
Do you like watching movies orreading books where nothing bad
ever happens to the protagonist?
One of the most insightfulcomments I ever heard came from
a writer giving a lecture.
I watched on YouTube.
A writer giving a lecture Iwatched on YouTube and he said

(01:10):
he felt bad sometimes for thereally terrible things that he
made happen to his characters,but that he knew it was
necessary to give them a storywhere they could grow.
He then casually commented thatmaybe that's what it was like
for God orchestrating ourstories In a very real sense.
It is a writer's job to tormenttheir characters, and the

(01:30):
characters of those storiesbenefit from it.
So there's a storytellingmechanism called the hero's
journey.
It's fairly simple if you'renot familiar with it.
The hero starts out content andthen a problem arises which
then prompts the hero to pursuea solution which sets the hero
off on a journey where the herois then tested and tried and has

(01:53):
to overcome a difficultchallenge.
And when the hero returns theworld the hero left is usually
the same, but the hero is now adifferent person.
If it sounds familiar, it'sbecause this is the simplified
plot for almost every adventurestory ever written.
It's also symbolic of the samejourneys that we pursue in our

(02:16):
own life.
I mean, the only reason we haveany interest in any story
whatsoever is because of theproblem that the story revolves
around.
Even when you're complaining toyour neighbor about your lawn
dying, it's only interesting tothem because you've presented a
problem.
When you tell your friend thatyour kid graduated college, it's

(02:38):
only exciting because the kidhad to do something that
required some amount ofdifficulty, I mean one would
hope anyways.
Hard to tell sometimes.
At the very least it representsthat that child survived
successfully to adulthood.
And as much as I hate myproblems, I need them.

(02:59):
With no problems in my life, mylife ceases to be a story.
And with no challenge thenthere are no true
accomplishments.
With no darkness there is nolight, just as with no misery we
would not know joy.
My life is harder now than whenI was a kid.
I have bigger problems now.

(03:20):
I'm divorced and I have kidswith their own unique needs and
challenges.
I have a company and no one upthe chain above me to take on
the big problems.
When the company loses money, Ilose money Despite my
responsibilities and my problemsand the added challenges they
present to my life.
I wouldn't have it any otherway.

(03:42):
My problems may be bigger thanwhen I was a child, but my
capacity to handle them hasgrown to be able to match them.
See, my problems are myopportunity to take my own
hero's journey where thepossibility of failure is high,
if not likely.
My company could fail, my kidscould grow up and ignore

(04:07):
everything I ever taught them orheaven forbid I could fail in
keeping my kids safe andactually lose one of them.
See, the more responsibilityyou take on, the more
opportunity you've created foryourself to fail.
So why do we insist on takingthese responsibilities and these
problems on in our lives?
I mean, does anything soundmore foolish than pursuing

(04:27):
things that are just beyond ourreach?
It's because we want to grow.
One of my favorite stories ofall time is Victor Hugo's Les
Miserables.
I don't know if I pronouncethat right, but anyways.
In that story he presents someof the absolute worst parts of
humanity.
They're on display in order toshine a light on the best parts

(04:53):
of it.
The protagonist, jean Valjean,starts off the story as a thief
who's been embittered by decadesin prison over stealing a loaf
of bread, and when he's free hehas this crucial interaction
with the priest that sets him ona path of redemption.
And I won't spoil that for you.
I'll let you read that, ormaybe you already know it.

(05:15):
But from that point onward itseems that his efforts to live a
godly life are thwarted overand over and over, and in the
process the reader comes toadmire this fictional character
like few others, as he persistsin his commitment to living a
godly life.
The title of the book is superappropriate.

(05:37):
Obviously, in English, lesMiserables is the miserables,
the miserable people.
Few good things happen in thatstory, but somehow Victor Hugo
ended up writing one of the mostinspiring tales I've ever heard
.
There is no decisive victorywon.
There's no narrow escapes fromdeath.

(05:57):
Well, actually there are a fewof those, but good wins, not
because it's necessarily winningthe war or winning the battle,
but because people arepersisting in doing it,
regardless the consequences.
I think a greater tragedy thanthe pain of Jean Valjean, our

(06:18):
protagonist, and everything heexperiences would be to rob him
of his trials and everything heexperiences would be to rob him
of his trials.
See, through this story andthrough all of the terrible
things that happen to this guy,a simple man gets formed into

(06:38):
God's image through histribulation.
It's the hard things we gothrough in life that turn us
into something more, like thecoal that turns to diamond under
pressure, or the forest that'srenewed by the wildfires, or the
sword that is forged throughheat and hammers, the muscle
that only grows through strain,the friendship that blooms
through hard times together.

(07:00):
Bad things are going to happento us.
When I was a child, bad thingsare going to happen to us.
When I was a child, one of mygreatest fears, if not my
greatest, was the possibility ofmy parents splitting up.
And when I got divorced, I canrecall journaling about that
fear of mine as a child andwriting in there that I felt

(07:22):
like I was subjecting my ownchildren to my own worst
nightmare.
And would you believe it?
Like?
Two nights later, I'm with mylittle seven-year-old daughter
at the time and she tells meunprompted that having her mom
and I divorce was her worstnightmare, was her worst

(07:47):
nightmare, and now it was comingtrue.
I have never felt like more ofa failure than in that moment.
One always hopes that thetroubled journey we embark on
doesn't have to start too earlyfor our children, but sometimes
that journey is forced upon usand sometimes we fail.
I don't know how that's goingto affect my journey and I don't

(08:09):
know how it's going to affectmy children's journey.
All I know is that the journeyis not done yet and I have not
given up on giving my childrenthe best possible raising, in
spite of my circumstances.
Their hearts may be broken, buthearts can heal, and that's

(08:29):
what I need to help them do aspart of my journey.
And the beautiful thing in allof this is that, even though we
may fail in life's journeys, wecan get back up again.
I love the line from Gone withthe Wind.
At the very end, after a hugeloss, scarlett O'Hara says
tomorrow is another day and ourstory doesn't really end until

(08:53):
we die.
And maybe our story won't haveto stop there.
The pain and the hardships aremore than we can handle at times
, but just keep in mind thatrain will make the flowers grow.
This is Skipping Stones.
You can find this podcastanywhere you choose to listen to

(09:13):
podcasts.
For more information about me,feel free to visit
skippingstonessrcom and if youenjoyed the show, please like or
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free to email me at info atskippingstonessrcom.
New episodes will be releasedweekly, every Monday.