Ask yourself. Is it possible you need a little adversity? Could it be that it’s going on right now, and that God is doing something wonderful in you even as you fight it off? Could it be that you should accept your present pain as a beloved friend and not a despised enemy?

A certain tribe of Native Americans had a special rite of passage for training young braves. On one boy’s thirteenth birthday he was blindfolded and taken deep into the forest, where he was left to fend off the terrors of the night.

The young man had never been apart from his family until now. He had learned of all the dangerous creatures and of the danger of becoming lost forever in the labyrinth of untamed vegetation. But now it was his role to show his courage.

When he took off his blindfold, he found himself alone under the moon and the stars. The darkness and solitude magnified every sound, infusing every snap of a twig with foreboding possibilities. Could a wolf be stealthily drawing near? Or maybe a poisonous snake, coiling itself in the branches above? He wondered if the privileges of adulthood were worth such a trial.

After a moonlit eternity, the first rays of sunshine broke through the thick green canopy above him. He began to see flowers, trees, and finally a forest pathway. Looking a bit farther, he was jolted by the sight of a fierce warrior only a few feet away, bow and arrow at the ready. It was his father. He had silently kept watch through the night.17

Life can bring us to dark and foreboding places—lonely places in which we feel isolated and desolate. Yet there is always Someone keeping watch. Why doesn’t He speak? Why doesn’t He disclose His presence so that we might relax? He keeps His silence because otherwise we would not learn to be courageous. We would not build trust.

The trials that bring us into maturity are often terrifying or painful. But who wants to remain a child forever? Not me! I want to be a fully grown, mature disciple of the Lord. I want the traits He wishes to instill in me through His perfect love—traits that will be evident only if I trust Him, even when I can neither see Him nor feel His loving hand.

EIGHT

God’s Love Will Never Let You Go

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

—JOHN 10:28

Something in a man needs a mountain to climb, a challenge to meet. And what challenge is greater than the ultimate peak, the highest of mountains—Mount Everest? More than three thousand climbers have made it to the top. But, several thousand have failed, and more than 220 have died in the attempt.