The painful path of growth

Ever have a time when you were scraping along thinking things were pretty rough, but something else happened to make life even harder?  Yeah, me too.  Here's what I'm thinking through -- the path to personal and spiritual growth is a staircase made of crises.  I know that doesn't sound very appealing...but I think it's what Scripture teaches.

Romans 5:3-5 says, "We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit,  whom He has given to us."  The things I really want...or should really want, like hope and love and character -- well, those verses make it pretty clear that the way to those good things is through perseverance.  And I can only persevere when facing a crisis, a struggle, suffering.

The Bible even says that Christ was made perfect through suffering (Hebrews 2:10) and the Bible says that Jesus had to learn obedience from what He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).  If suffering and crises were instrumental in the growth and perfection of Jesus, who do I think I am that I could possibly grow and mature without them?  

So here's what I'm determined to do -- I will remain hopeful and joyful and expectant no matter what comes my way.  And I will persevere.  Not only that, but I will view the difficulties and struggles of life as God's classroom -- teaching me things that I could never know any other way.