you don't plan suffering

Growth happens the most in the places where we’re not looking for it.

I listen to a lot of podcasts.  I read a lot of books.  I love to learn.  And I do grow from using my time in that way.  But learning does not make up for experience.  It’s in life’s experiences, life’s joys, and life’s sufferings that we truly grow.

As Tim Keller shares, “You can plan to obey… but you can’t plan to suffer.  Suffering is one of the main ways Jesus gives you what you really want which is to become the person you want to be.”

Suffering is never planned.  Trials are never planned.  Nor are they desired.  But when they come, the opportunity to grow and become more of who we are is available to us.