Spiritual toughness

Because I'm always trying to make myself tougher.
Mentally tough.
Physically tough.

Don't give up.
Press on.
Push through pain.
Do the little things. Make a habit of being consistently hardworking.

But what if I put as much focus on being spiritually tough?
The funny thing is, I think that being spiritually tougher, in whatever religion you hold, makes people mentally tougher and physically tougher.
When you're tough spiritually, you push through having the greater purpose in mind,
Not the temporary pain.
You use your talents.
There's a reason why they call it the protestant work ethic,
And it's because even if you're comfortable,
If you're not following your calling,
If you're not using your gifts,
And giving it all to God's other children,
Then you are not loving your brother in the way that God designed.

So yeah, why do I tend to focus on the doing,
The physical activities, the intellectual stimulation, to the exclusion of exercising being spiritually tough...
To see when I'm blaming God, resenting God, and changing the way that I'm framing those?
Figuring out why I'm framing them that way?

Because people, life is hard, and filled with more hardships, and then we die.
Because sometimes the things tethering us to this world seem thinner
And the difficulties grow bigger.
Family rifts, finances, work, fatigue, constantly having to find new peers, irritation, crabby co-workers, bills, uncertainty about the future, laziness etc

But, if God is tethering me to this world, isn't that all that matters?
And can I spin threads of twine that weave their way towards him? Can I strengthen that tether myself, too, instead of expecting him to do all the work?
Can I see the difficulty through the eyes of a long-term plan and embrace the molding? Can I toughen myself against thoughts that consistently bring me down? Can I trust that, while it isn't guaranteed that there won't be pain in our lives, and more pain than happiness, there is always the opportunity for peace?

Can I not make reading the Bible or praying the first thing that I nix on a busy day? Can I let it slow me down and breathe. And strengthen. And soften?

We shall see.
We shall see.