but the boat was already far from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

Soon a violent windstorm came up, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was being swamped.

So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

For we wanted to come to you—indeed I, Paul, tried again and again—but Satan obstructed us.

Most of the time when we got a tough row to plow, the Good Lord makes us fall a little short and puts another mule in the pasture. You don't never know whether you're the blind mule or the deaf mule, but you're always one or the other.

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed.

When Bad Things Happen to Good People and his lectures.

I found peace through God but not until I had driven myself to the edge.

And, when I had travelled through these three chief points of the word of God, about the space of five years or more, I was caught in my present practice, and cast into prison, where I have lain above as long again to confirm the truth by way of suffering, as I was before in testifying of it according to the scriptures, in a way of preaching.

God also puts His people in the middle of things for the same reason that He put the tree of temptation in the middle of the garden--so that our choice to follow Him would be a conscious, daily one. Every time we publicly choose to live for Christ, He is glorified.

Some will live their whole lives missing the chance to see all the good God has placed around them just for them. Partly because the hard stuff has demanded so much of their attention. And the seeming permanence of some of the heartbreak has stolen their affection for life.

The question is, can a human being hold on to God in the face of suffering? After all, suffering is the test of love.