When the hard things come upon us, we tend to use them as a way of saying, “This is so bad, that if God really is in charge and He sent this to me—or even just allowed this to come into my life—He’s being cruel to me.” 

In If God Is Good, I share a story that John Stott tells in his book The Cross of Christ about billions of people seated on a great plain before God’s throne.

It’s easy to see the wonderful, amazing things in life as love gifts. But let me tell you, it’s much harder to see the difficult and downright horrible things in life as gifts.