Not only is all your affliction [in the path of obedience] momentary, not only is all your affliction light in comparison to eternity, and the glory there, but all of it is totally meaningful. Every millisecond of your pain…every millisecond of your misery in the path of obedience is producing a peculiar glory…I don’t care if it’s cancer or criticism. I don’t care if it was slander or sickness. It wasn’t meaningless. It’s doing something. It’s not meaningless. Of course you can’t see what it’s doing. Don’t look to what is seen. When your mom dies, when your kid dies, when you got cancer at 40, when a car careens into the sidewalk and takes her out, don’t say, “it’s meaningless!” It’s not. It’s working…an eternal…glory. Therefore…do not lose heart, but take these truths and day by day focus on them. Preach them to yourself every morning. Get alone with God and preach his word into your mind until your mind sings with confidence that you are new, that you are cared for.

–Piper