「我在窘困中，求你使我寬廣。」－詩篇4:1
這不是一個感謝神拯救他脫離苦難的見證；這是一個感謝神帶領他經過苦難而得釋放的見證：「我在窘困中，求你使我寬廣。」他見證他生命的寬廣來自於苦難。
你我不也有著無數相同的見證嗎？
聖經記載當約瑟在牢獄中時，「鐵進入了他的靈魂」（詩篇105:18，希伯來文原譯）。我們都覺得約瑟靈魂裡所缺的，正是鐵的素質。
過去的約瑟，全身閃著黃金的光澤；因著年少的一場夢，他歡喜快活，然而這夢卻使他的心剛硬。因著多愁善感而拭淚的人，絕不能幫助他面對現實生活；苦難對他那充滿詩意的生活，相差得太過遙遠。
因此，我們性格需要的，正是鐵的擴展。黃澄澄的金子是異象，鐵的性格才能產生經歷；金不過是局部片段的喜樂，鐵才能分享普世性的憂愁。
我的心哪，若你願得擴展，以致能憐恤包容人的各樣處境，你就需要先經過苦難的侷限。
約瑟牢獄的歷程，是他通向寶座之路。你生命裡若缺少鐵的份量，你也難以除掉你兄弟身上鐵一般的包袱。
唯有拘禁，才能擴展你的生命；唯有在陰影中，才能帶來榮耀異夢的實現。
－馬特孫
"Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress" (Ps. 4:1).This is one of the grandest testimonies ever given by man to the moral government of God. It is not a man's thanksgiving that he has been set free from suffering. It is a thanksgiving that he has been set free through suffering: "Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress." He declares the sorrows of life to have been themselves the source of life's enlargement.
And have not you and I a thousand times felt this to be true? It is written of Joseph in the dungeon that "the iron entered into his soul." We all feel that what Joseph needed for his soul was just the iron. He had seen only the glitter of the gold. He had been rejoicing in youthful dreams; and dreaming hardens the heart. He who sheds tears over a romance will not be most apt to help reality; real sorrow will be too unpoetic for him. We need the iron to enlarge our nature. The gold is but a vision; the iron is an experience. The chain which unites me to humanity must be an iron chain. That touch of nature which makes the world akin is not joy, but sorrow; gold is partial, but iron is universal.
My soul, if thou wouldst be enlarged into human sympathy, thou must be narrowed into limits of human suffering. Joseph's dungeon is the road to Joseph's throne. Thou canst not lift the iron load of thy brother if the iron hath not entered into thee. It is thy limit that is thine enlargement. It is the shadows of thy life that are the real fulfillment of thy dreams of glory. Murmur not at the shadows; they are better revelations than thy dreams. Say not that the shades of the prison-house have fettered thee; thy fetters are wings--wings of flight into the bosom of humanity. The door of thy prison-house is a door into the heart of the universe. God has enlarged thee by the binding of sorrow's chain.--George Matheson
