Suffering

I definitely think God has been at work in my heart these past few months. He is showing me what it means to die to my own desires and I believe he uses suffering to do that. I've been reading The Upside of Adversity by Os Hillman and it seems it was written for me at this time. Bill Hamm is quoted in the book saying "Failure brings you to the point of surrender. Most of us aren't ready to surrender until we reach a point of desperation." How true is that? We all know that as Christians suffering will be a part of life. But to know that the suffering is for a purpose, to change our hearts is encouraging. We can respond to suffering with anger, suck it up, or embrace it. I've realized that I have had the suck it up attitude for awhile. I simply think I can persevere through it and pray for it to end. But that is not the way to learn the lesson of suffering. I hope I am learning the lesson to be content in whatever circumstances and to embrace suffering. Hopefully I will move forward with a much deeper relationship with Christ.