from Augustine's "Confessions"..."What is is therefore that goes on within the soul, since it takes greater delight if things that it loves are found or restored to it than if it had always possessed them?...Everywhere a greater joy is preceded by a greater suffering."

reading Philip Yancey's "Where is God When it Hurts?, mulling over the idea of pain being a gift (think of leprosy patients), of suffering preceeding a joy that could not have been had any other way, thinking about "our light and momentary troubles achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all". the point of suffering, the purpose of pain, the strength and character gained through the things we hate to go through...if we choose that way over anger and bitterness, fear and mistrust.