I read a quote recently that blew my mind, convicted me big time, and also comforted me — all at the same time. I could have sworn that I saved it some place, but I can’t for the life of me find it anywhere. I am so bummed. I will have to try my best to recreate it from memory.

Basically, it said that we pray for maturity and then get mad at God for the means He uses to grow us up. We ask for patience, but then get irritated at the people and circumstances that try our patience, forgetting that the very testing of our patience produces hope and growth — and sturdier patience.

We get resentful at God for the trials that bring us to our knees in dependence on God. Those trials are the means of making us look more like Jesus, but we focus on the temporary aspects of the suffering instead of the eternal weight of glory that is the end result.

In essence, I want godliness by way of ease and comfort, but that’s not how it works. I can hear that old lady from the Geico commercial now: “That’s not how this works! That’s not how any of this works!”

And she’s right. God knows that we learn best not in our victories but in our defeats. We grow not on those glorious mountaintops but in the dreaded valleys. We suffer, not because God is mean or a killjoy that doesn’t want us to be happy, but because the world is a beautiful but broken place, because we learn precious lessons in the dark that can learned nowhere else, and because we can turn around and comfort those who are walking through the same trials that we’ve been through.

Maybe I’ll find that quote somewhere. It’s was really, really good. You’ll just have to take my word for it.