Suffering is not one's natural lot. Trouble is never one's necessity. Difficulty is merely notice informing one of the demand for progress within an area of thought and action in which he is entirely capable of meeting the demand.
The human, mortal sense of life may include suffering, distress, and limitation. But there is always a blessing in each circumstance if it forces the individual to surmount and destroy whatever in his experience is contrary to the allness and goodness of God. Samuel Johnson once said: "Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified. He that labors in any great or laudable undertaking has his fatigues first supported by hope and afterwards rewarded by joy."
The ideas of spiritual good developed in the overcoming of the difficulties of human experience are necessary to our progress. It is wrong to resent the troubles we face, to murmur over them, because their very presence indicates that demands are being made upon us for progress toward greater freedom and fuller rewards.
