Monday August 24th, 2009-08-24

The Law of Compensation


“I think it can truly be said that all men suffer all their lives, under the false impression that they can be cheated.” Napoleon Hill

I believe that is a true statement of us all. How many times have I found myself in a situation, or being treated in a certain way, and thought to myself, ‘this if unfair!’ or ‘I do not deserve this!’ And perhaps I was (or am) right. But where in times past, I would try and make the change happen myself, the passing of years has taught me that there is no need for my own personal retribution or loss of my own peace of mind in trying make the changes happen.
Through my own observation, the readings of Scripture, and of men like Napoleon Hill, Emerson, Elwood Hubbard, and others, I have discovered the Law of Compensation.

I especially like the way Napoleon Hill phrases it:

Every Adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.

How true! How profound a thought! Just as the acorn must produce an oak tree, and a corn seed must produce a stalk, so every act of adversity must carry with it the seeds of change. Whether you recognize those seeds or not, will depend on your own mind set. Are you open to teaching? Or is your mind closed to teaching?

I have always loved this quote from Herbert Spencer:

There is a principle, which is a bar against all information
Which is proof against all argument
And which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—
That principle is contempt prior to investigation.

I have been blessed in my life to have spent so much time in the wilderness—nature in the raw! The one thing I have observed repeatedly while out in God’s playground was the fact that change is one thing that is forced upon us in order to survive. Nothing stays the same. All things are constantly in a state of change –which lead to growth, or else it is a constant state of change –which leads to death. But change we must! Even the mountains change, although we may not readily observe it. But the storms, the winds, the ice and the snows, will all have their effect on those high solid rock formations. They will change. Slowly, over eons from erosion perhaps, or suddenly sliding to the valleys below from unexpected earthquakes, they will slide to a lower level. Sometimes this change creates many other needs to change also. The resulting landslide may block a river for example, creating the needs to change among the fish and wildlife and flora that lived there – and will now have to live in the new changed environment. But change they will! Or die.
We are at present going through dramatic changes in our economy. Like a giant rake going through a garden and dislocating the weeds which have grown up there, so is the coming recession (read Depression) going to rake through our economy and uproot the bloat and dishonesty that has taken root there.
And like the landslide blocking the rivers and streams in a valley, it is going to force change on those who may not want to change. Hence, some of us will adopt the attitude of ‘It is not fair!” or “ I did not deserve this!” And we would be right. It is not fair in our view, nor did we deserve this – in our view. But it is not ‘our view’ of things that controls our destiny. It is our thoughts – how we think – which controls our destiny.
Accurate thoughts, bring accurate actions. Accurate actions, bring right (wanted) results.
So my choice then, when faced with change because of any kind of adversity, is this: “Do I want to look for the benefit and move forward in life?” or “I don’t like this forced on me, so I will just balk and resist it all.” If I think the latter, then I will certainly give into the belief that I am being cheated – that something has been ‘taken’ from me against my will. If I continually give into this fear, my thinking will become that of a hoarder, and the circle will continue to spiral downward under the wrong thoughts it will produce in me. Smaller and smaller will my choices become as my dream disappears and my mind continues to convince me that the whole world is somehow out to punish me, and therefore I better ‘grab what I can.”
God forbid!

I want to introduce what Emerson had to say on this subject. Surely the Sage of Concord has a lesson for me here!

“The changes which break up at short intervals the prosperity of men, are advertisements of a nature whose law is growth. Evermore it is the order of nature to grow, and every soul is by this intrinsic necessity quitting its whole system of things, its friends, its home, and laws, and faith, as the shellfish crawls out of its beautiful but stony case, because it no longer admits of its growth , and slowly forms a new house…And yet the compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends seems at the moment unpaid loss, and unpayable. But the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that underlies all facts.
The death of a dear friend, wife, brother , lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a house-hold, or a style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character. It permits or constrains the formation of new acquaintances, and the reception of new influences that prove of the first importance to the next years; and the man or woman who would have remained a sunny garden flower, with no room for it’s roots and too much sunshine for its head, by the falling of the walls and neglect of the gardener, is made the banyan of the forest, yielding shade and fruit to wide neighbourhoods of men.

Is Emerson speaking to you? He certainly is to me! I see it now:

Every adversity carries within it, the seeds of a greater or equivalent benefit!

All I have to do to receive it, is to open my mind and look for it!