Success and Suffering

It seems to me in my short life that we achieve more through suffering than through success. I don't mean to say that we ought to seek out suffering, but when faced with it we should react with some sense of hope. Hope you say? When crap happens? Yes, now I don't pretend that we will enter suffering with a silly smile or fake pretension that all is well because it ends well. It may not end well - that is no fun at all. But the knowledge that suffering molds our character, transforms our lives, and creates reliance should bring about a paradigm shift in thinking so that as we suffer we become more refined and tempered. We will be somehow better for it and that change in perspective allows hope to creep in. Let us encourage each other that we live for a time in such a place as this but this is not our final destination, this is simply a stop on the way. Don't unpack, don't settle in to much, because soon enough - off we go. Live with eternity in mind. Take care of each other along the path because you never know who you may run into again in the future. The next time suffering steps through the door remember that you will be better for the meeting. Weep, rejoice, whatever, but focus on the fact that in our times of success we tend not to know who we really are and that suffering ushers us closer to God.