When Trials Come Your Way

There is no disputing that something crazy is happening in the United States, if not the whole world.
We are not in control, never have been, but now we know for sure.
The war, the economy, the housing market...and the list goes on and on and on...
Almost one out of every 5 people I come in contact with (and I meet a lot of people) are going through a trial. Not a hassle ("I am uncomfortable right now"), but a bona fide ("I don't know if I can, or want to, live any more")trial.
Not too many people have known but I have been going through a trial for the last year, and it has not been without pain.
What I have learned is that we are supposed to suffer in this life; we are supposed to go through pain. Life is not a party and we are not supposed to be happy happy joy joy all of the time.
It is in the trials that we are refined or we fall apart. It is in the fire that we are stripped of things that have been hanging on for way too long - many time for decades. When we are put in the furnace the ropes that have been binding us will burn off, but it gets hot. Many times for a long time, depending on how long we have been wearing the ropes that bind us.
During these trials I have (after finding that kicking and screaming don't work)stepped back (or maybe I have fought so long to get my way that I am exhausted and can't move!) and let God refine me.
Our trials, our pain. Step back. Rest in God.
Rather than ask the question that never gets answered, "Why"? look up and ask "What? What needs to be stripped? What do you want to teach me that I have been too stubborn to learn? What?"
We will have trials, they will hurt, they many times will go on longer than we think we can bear.
But we are not alone, and there is a reason. And that great God is going through it with us. We are being refined...His perfect masterpiece!