Emuna Bumper Cars

I used to think that, once I found my mission in life, everything would be smooth sailing. After all, if I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing the pieces should fall into place… right? Aren’t difficulties and closed doors and reoccurring challenges a sign you’re on the wrong path? Sometimes yes, but more importantly, sometimes no.

Rabbi Shalom Arush asks, in the Universal Garden of Emuna, “Why does the Creator send souls to a physical world? Does He want them to be challenged and tested: will they be able to find the Creator and discover emuna despite the heavy opposition? Of course! This is the challenge and the test!”

Dear Readers, let me tell you – before learning about emuna – I had challenges just like everyone. Emotional upheavals, career changes, moves, medical emergencies and all the normal life stuff. But here’s the thing. After learning about emuna and beginning to live an emuna-centered life, I look back on those challenges and realize that they were so superficial. As real as they seemed at the time I now can see that they were merely bumps put in my way by my loving Father in Heaven to guide me toward Truth.

This was not unlike being in a bumper car in an arcade careening blindly around the course of life. Without those challenges to bump into, I would have just kept spinning around and around life. What a blessing those challenges were!

And now that, thanks to Hashem, emuna is a big part of my life – guess what? I still have all kinds of challenges! And I’m still bumping into them and they are still helping to guide me along. Yet it’s different now.

I’m certainly not perfect about handling challenges. They are often not fun and some of the doozies that pop up – especially along the lines of self-improvement – can take a lot of time, patience and many many prayers to work though. In the midst of the challenges I occasionally become impatient and frustrated with myself.

“Really, Jennifer? You lost your temper again? You might as well just start introducing yourself as ‘The Angry Mama’ because that is how your son is going to remember you.” This is just one of my EI’s (evil inclination) favorite chiding comments as I work on parenting self-improvement efforts.

But let me tell you, when I look back at the challenges that have been overcome since the blessing of emuna came into my life, I don’t just see bumpers guiding me along as I try to drive my unwieldy little life bumper car around. I’ve upgraded my little bumper car to an emuna bumper car and now when I bump into challenges, I see soul changing lessons, opportunities for growth, connections built, and a chance to deepen my relationship with my Creator. 

That deepening relationship with your Creator is where you’ll find yourself on the path to your mission in life – but even still, there will be challenges because the Creator LOVES you! Sometimes the challenges will be small and sometimes they will be big. The one tool to conquer them all and keep you moving on the path to your mission is emuna.

Emuna gives us the tools to do something amazing with challenges – we can learn from them! We can improve and strengthen ourselves and we can encourage and help others because of them! Most of all we can draw closer to our Creator as we work through them. And that, my friends, is the purpose of it all.

Challenges cause us to seek the Creator. As we seek the Creator we grow spiritually. As we grow spiritually we are able to decipher deeper messages in challenges. Learning from those challenges awakens us and strengthens us to seek the Creator even more.

“Beep! Beep!” It’s time to hop in your emuna bumper car and get to work – focusing on your mission and tackling challenges with an emuna perspective.

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Jennifer invites you to participate in a regularly held Noahide on-line study group that reviews the garden series books of Rabbi Arush. You can contact her at jenniferjwoodward@gmail.com to be added to the weekly newsletter for dates and times. Visit the blog at noahidenews.blogspot.com