「因為我們這短暫輕微的苦楚，要極盡超越的為我們成就永遠重大的榮耀。」－哥林多後書4:17
許多人不明白為什麼人生的路途上漫佈了血淚。這個答案乃是：「為我們成就」。
苦難的目的，是造就寶貴的事物；苦難，不但引領我們步向得勝，也教導了我們得勝的法則。
每段血淚的苦楚，都將帶來回報；而這些苦楚，如今正在成就我們的報償。
就如一首古老詩歌蒼勁的呼喊：
「與你更近，我神，與你更近，縱然十架在身。」
有時，喜樂必須出於苦難。
盲眼女詩人芬妮.克羅斯比終其一生沒有見過青碧的草地、西下的落日、和母親慈愛的眼眸；但她卻因此寫出那首美麗的詩歌：「我將和祂面對面」。
因著眼目的失盲，她才能有超凡屬靈的敏感度。
幸好悲傷只在夜間徘徊，早晨它便乘風而逝。
雷雨之於夏日，不過一瞬罷了。「一宿雖然有哭泣，早晨便必歡呼」（詩篇30:5）。
－夜晚之歌
"For this our light and transitory burden of suffering is achieving for us a weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17). (Weymouth)"Is achieving for us," mark. The question is repeatedly asked--Why is the life of man drenched with so much blood, and blistered with so many tears? The answer is to be found in the word "achieving"; these things are achieving for us something precious. They are teaching us not only the way to victory, but better still the laws of victory. There is a compensation in every sorrow, and the sorrow is working out the compensation.
It is the cry of the dear old hymn:
"Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee,
E'en tho' it be a cross that raiseth me."
Joy sometimes needs pain to give it birth. Fanny Crosby could never have written her beautiful hymn, "I shall see Him face to face," were it not for the fact that she had never looked upon the green fields nor the evening sunset nor the kindly twinkle in her mother's eye. It was the loss of her own vision that helped her to gain her remarkable spiritual discernment.
It is the tree that suffers that is capable of polish. When the woodman wants some curved lines of beauty in the grain he cuts down some maple that has been gashed by the axe and twisted by the storm. In this way he secures the knots and the hardness that take the gloss.
It is comforting to know that sorrow tarries only for the night; it takes its leave in the morning. A thunderstorm is very brief when put alongside the long summer day. "Weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning." --Songs in the Night
