What Afflictions Avail

(Found here)

If not for sufferings, the unknowable
Providence of God would not be apprehended
as acting on the crowd. And we would be
unable to approach God with boldness,
unable to learn the Spirit’s wisdom
or be assured of divine love in our souls.

Prior to sufferings, the poor man prays
as to a stranger; but if, out of love, he struggles,
soon he observes a stirring change.
Before this, he held God as a taskmaster,
but now becomes God’s true friend.

~Scott Cairns