At the end of an interview with the remarkable "traumatologist" Zahava Farbman, she mentions an idea from the book Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh:
...the Chafetz Chaim, when he felt spiritually weak, he would go and learn the first few pesukim of Beresheis—the story of when Hashem created the world.
And why would he do that—just Beresheis bara Elokim ["In the Beginning, God created..."]?
To remind himself just yesh Borei Olam—that there's a Creator of the world.
That's it.
He created me, He created this world, and He knows what He's doing.
It goes without saying that the Chafetz Chaim's feeling of spiritual weakness was probably not like a regular person's feeling of spiritual weakness.
But it was weak compared to whatever level he was on.
Nonetheless, the point is this:
Everybody needs chizuk.
Everybody suffers weak moments at times.
Even the greatest people had their challenges.
People can put you down for having a weak moment or a weak phase.
Sometimes, you despise yourself for this weakness.
Some make you feel abnormal for struggling.
But they're absolutely wrong.
It's NORMAL to struggle.
It's NORMAL to stumble.
It's NORMAL to fall.
It's normal to feel weak at times.
It's normal & can happen to even the very best of us.
But it was weak compared to whatever level he was on.
Nonetheless, the point is this:
Everybody needs chizuk.
Everybody suffers weak moments at times.
Even the greatest people had their challenges.
People can put you down for having a weak moment or a weak phase.
Sometimes, you despise yourself for this weakness.
Some make you feel abnormal for struggling.
But they're absolutely wrong.
It's NORMAL to struggle.
It's NORMAL to stumble.
It's NORMAL to fall.
It's normal to feel weak at times.
It's normal & can happen to even the very best of us.
Sometimes, it's really hard to stay up.
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