Successful Trials?

    These days, each season seems to bring a new change in life. Nearly always I am able to welcome the change or at least adapt quickly (at least when it is in the stages of theory and imagination). But lately the changes come without warning and I am forced to skip the welcoming stage as I am thrown into the adapting. Nearly always, it seems, my heart screams out for things to be still and return to normal.
     I have been encouraged in many directions on the matter of trials and storms, yet in some way the advice seems elementary. As if it were hollow yet well meant. You know what I'm referring to: "God will use this for good";"God is refining you"; or "it's when our lives are darkest that God can shine the brightest". I know these things to be true but they do not shed light on what I should do or how I should respond.
     I have been reflecting on this issue frequently these days as I watch many other families and friends in their trials and hope to have something deeper and fuller to encourage them with. Some bit of truth and spirit. I came across these quotes and it seems my heart is once again not where it should be.
      "Challenge is what keeps us seasoned. But to be profitable, our struggle must have purpose, and it must be productive...It's only when we put struggle within the Christian context of character development and self-sacrifice that it becomes profitable."   by Gary Thomas
   What is the purpose of our trials? How do I respond in a productive manner?  Gary Thomas indicates through character development and self-sacrifice. I can feel the fullness of those charges.
   Thomas also says "It helps when we view our struggles in light of what they provide for us spiritually rather than in light of what they take from us emotionally." This one-liner hit me like a ton of bricks! I could not accurately confess to you the amount of times I have allowed my tender, fickle, and aching heart to justify my inappropriate character and actions. Or explain how my heart seems to sail recklessly as I hypocritically long for stability. All the while, I blame the storm!
   Thank you Jesus for giving these ideas to the authors and for leading my to the books!