וַיְהִ֗י אַחַר֙ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔לֶּה וְהָ֣אֱלֹקִ֔ים נִסָּ֖ה אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֑ם; וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלָ֔יו, “אַבְרָהָ֖ם!” וַיֹּ֥אמֶר, “הִנֵּֽנִי!”׃

And it was, after these events, that G-d put Abraham to the test; He said to him: “Avraham!” and he said: “Here I am!”

– Bereishis 22:1

Just stop and thing about this… Hashem presents Avraham with a test, a challenge, a nisayon.

Avraham does not try to avoid a situation he didn’t like. And while Avraham presumably treated the nisayon as a growth experience, that’s not the response directly described in the pasuq either. Avraham said “Hineini — Here I am!”

Because we can ascend spiritually through nisayon, it is a call to encounter, a moment of closeness with Hashem.

(H/T Dr Alan Morinis. This post merely highlights a single point he made early in a recent webinar. See “Resilience“, a class on how to ride through the hard times, with a focus on the recent natural disasters in Houston Puerto Rico, and Miami.)