By Robyn Young

Years ago, I watched the movie What About Bob?, a comedy about a man named Bob (Bill Murray), a deeply paranoid New Yorker who’s afraid of just about everything. His fears are so overwhelming that basic daily functioning becomes a challenge. Just before his new psychiatrist, Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss), leaves for an extended family vacation, Bob is referred to him. Panicked at the idea of being without support, Bob tracks down Dr. Marvin at his vacation home.

At first, Dr. Marvin is annoyed. But that irritation quickly turns into full-blown hatred as Bob continues to show up—blissfully unaware that he’s unwelcome. Every sabotage Dr. Marvin plans to get rid of Bob backfires, and Bob—believing each attempt is part of a unique therapy—starts to thrive. Ironically, the more Dr. Marvin tries to push him away, the more Bob grows and heals. Meanwhile, Dr. Marvin begins to unravel.

I caught a few minutes of this movie on TV recently and saw it with new eyes. What once struck me as just a funny storyline now revealed something deeper. It perfectly illustrated a principle I had just been learning about: the Law of Polarity.

The Law of Polarity teaches that everything has an opposite: light and dark, joy and sorrow, success and failure. It also suggests that every situation—no matter how negative it seems—holds the potential for an equal or greater positive outcome. Picture a number line with zero in the middle. Any event sits at that zero point—neutral on its own. The meaning we give it is what makes it feel “bad” or “good.” A small negative experience—a -1—carries the potential for a +1. But a deeply painful or difficult experience—a -10—holds the potential for +10 growth or more.

Some of the greatest lessons and blessings in my life came out of my hardest moments. Not in spite of the difficulty—but because of it. That’s the law at work. There’s no transformation without struggle. And if the lesson came without the pain, it probably wouldn’t stick. The most meaningful growth is forged in fire. It’s not just that we survive hardship and happen to learn something—the learning is the reward. It becomes part of who we are.

How different our lives could be if we met adversity with gratitude. I’ve even noticed in scripture that some writers mention their greatest trials and greatest blessings in the same verse—and more than once.

Athletes understand this well. They grow by training right at the edge of their ability—sometimes past it. It hurts. It’s intense. But it’s also intentional. They know the gain comes through the pain. They don’t just tolerate the difficulty—they schedule it. What if we approached our lives the same way? What if we trusted that the hardship had a purpose and could bless us?

When we shift our perspective, when we begin to trust that good can come from everything, we stop fearing the challenges—and start seeing them as setups for something beautiful.

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