Many deaths must go into us reaching that measure, many letting go's.

But I can say that I know the One who knows. And I've come to see that it's through the deepest suffering that God has taught me the deepest lessons. And if we'll trust Him for it, we can come through to the unshakable assurance that He's in charge. He has a loving purpose. And He can transform something terrible into something wonderful. Suffering is never for nothing.

God makes the assignments, and he apportions the degree of difficulty in precise measurements.

There is no qualitative or quantitative measurement for pain. It is simply there--sharp or dull, shooting or stabbing, bearable or excruciating, local or general, it is unexplained, uninvited, unavoidable. It takes command. It is all-encompassing, implacable, exigent.

The real question we need to face is exactly what a Christian is supposed to do when terrible things happen. There are two choices, and only two: We can trust God or we can defy Him. We believe that God is God, He's still got the whole world in His hands and knows exactly what He's doing, or we must believe that He is not God and we are at the awful mercy of mere chance.

When our plans are interrupted, His are not. God's plans are proceeding exactly as scheduled, moving us always - including those minutes or hours or years which seem most useless or wasted or unendurable - toward the goal of true maturity.

A missionary plods through the first year or two, thinking that things will be different when he speaks the language. He is baffled to find, frequently, that they are not.

Things which sound like platitudes become vital, living and powerful when you have to learn them in dark tunnels.

With God's help, your trial today is leading to your wholeness tomorrow.

Allow God to use the difficulties and disappointments in life as polish to transform your faith into a glistening diamond that takes in and reflects His love.

When and how the most painful of situations is going to be resolved and redeemed is no mystery to God. Knowing this truth about God's complete knowledge really does help me accept the unacceptable in my life.

Let every hindrance to joy become the soil out of which joy blossoms.