Who Wants to be Challenged? | Rabbi Meir Simcha Sperling

In life, we don’t want challenges. We do not like when things are hard. And yet there are places that we go as children, or that we take our children to, and we pay money! for us to be challenged in an obstacle course, climbing up, crawling through mud, lifting heavy things, jumping off this, get over here, jump over that. Why? Why are we paying to challenge ourselves? And another example to become a Navy SEAL in the American army. I mean there are so many people that this is their life’s dream. Do you know what you have to go through? Do you know what you’ll be challenged with? I mean, swimming under water for like a half hour while defusing a bomb. Crawling at night through a dense forest, so you hide from your trainers. Lifting telephone poles with a few of your friends. Not sleeping for days. Very little eating. I mean jumping out of an airplane with 200 pounds on your back. This is your dream? Are you crazy? How could this be your dream? How could this be anybody’s dream? It’s so challenging. Look at a gold medalist in the Olympics, same thing. Their entire life they give up everything, just to be challenged. I want to train and train more, and train more. What is the Pshat? Perhaps one idea, is that they all do this Perhaps one idea, is that they all do this because they want to accomplish something in their lives. They want to show themselves that they can be somebody. I can become somebody great, somebody extraordinary. I want to feel accomplished, I want to feel good about myself. And they realize, that there’s a goal here. There’s a gold medal at the end. I become somebody very high ranking in the army. I’m going to do this. I’m willing to do this to be challenged, and I even enjoy the challenge because I know where I’m going. I know the end goal. I know that gold medal at the end. Rabbosai, this could be a skill also for the challenges in life, and especially those of Shemiras Einayim. Life is an obstacle course. If we realize, that every single time we overcome anything in Shemiras Einayim, even the smallest little thing, that’s a gold medal. That's multiple gold medals. And every time we look down, and every time we shut that computer, we turn off our phone, we run out of the office, or whatever the case is, that’s a tremendous success, no matter how small it is, and we focus on the goal, we realize that this is what the Creator wants from us. This is what the Melech Malchei Hamelachim wants us to do. Then, besides having a better life, and Olam Haba. Besides all that. Maybe it will even become more enjoyable to fight. And we hold back more because there’s a goal here. There’s a mission. I have a passion now for this mission, even though it’s hard. It is challenging. But look what I get at the end. Look what happens every single time. I feel so good about myself. There's a mission, there's a purpose. I’m a Navy SEAL in Hashem’s army. I'm going to do this. And then we walk outside with a fire, with a passion. Every time something happens, I'm going to fight back! And then Hashem will be so proud of us. We will be so proud of ourselves. And we will make this world a different world.