Pleasure and pain

It's impossible to pass through life without experiencing times when you cannot see your way through a deep valley. Times when the package delivered at the back door comes delivered in the ugly wrapping of a dead or affliction or illness. Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain.

You may find yourself enjoying the intermission. Today, you may be smiling. Your heart may be light or merry. Perhaps the answer to the prayer have come beautifully and deliberately. you are swept away in delight. But it's also quite possible that you are caught in the grip of affliction. You may be going through some of the hardest days of your life. You may be wandering. Why? Why me? Why this trial?

When we persevere through a trial, God gives you a special measure of insight. You become the recipient of the favor of God as He gives to you something that would not be learned otherwise.