It can be very tempting to waste the present by focusing on and wishfully thinking about the future. You can be so zoned in on where you want to go next that you miss the place where you are. I’ve been guilty of wasting weekdays by living for the next weekend.

But even if you don’t necessarily like where you are, you can still learn from it. You can grow where you’re planted and use the time to become the person God can use in the next place He has for you. Sometimes, the best training school is the one where you patiently endure the season you’re in until the next one starts.

Oswald Chambers said that sometimes God will teach you a lesson in the dark that you can use to help others once you’re back in the daylight again. You experience the kindness and compassion of Christ while you’re in a season of suffering so that you can in turn show that same kindness and compassion to others when it’s their turn.

Most of all, you identify most with Jesus when you suffer. He was known as a Man of Sorrows and told us that in this world we would have suffering. It wasn’t a matter of if but when. And when we do undergo trials, we know that our Savior has been through everything we experience but did not sin. Plus, He is with us through the fiery trials.

The key is to count it all joy. Again, don’t be a masochist and thank God for suffering, but you can be grateful in the midst of the pain knowing that God is with you and is working all things for good. The disciples rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. May we do the same.