An Opportunity?

George Hodges  (1856-1919) was an American Episcopal theologian.  He helped to establish the Kingsley Association in Pittsburgh, Pa. which was dedicated to helping migrant workers.  I hope you enjoy this quote from my daily devotional.  It helps me to think of my daily problems and worries this way.

“Every trouble is an opportunity to win the grace of strength.  Whatever else trouble is in the world for, it is here for this good purpose:  to develop strength.  For a trouble is a moral and spiritual task.  It is something which is hard to do.  And it is in the spiritual world as in the physical, strength is increased by encounter with the difficult.  A world without any trouble in it would be, to people of our kind, a place of spiritual enervation and moral laziness.  Fortunately, every day is crowded with care.  Every day to every one of us brings its questions, its worries, and its tasks, brings its sufficiency of trouble.  Thus we get our spiritual exercise.  Every day we are blessed with new opportunities for the development of strength of soul.”