Suffering and hardships, great or small, lengthy or short, direct or indirect, ours or of others close to us, are part and parcel of Christian growth. Hardships draw us closer to God for a sweet, expressive experience of God, bathed in a certain kind of reality that transcends temporal realities. Suffering and hardships bring us to our knees. If we turn our affections toward God, He hears our pleas and sooths our plight with a gentle presence which words can scarcely describe. Immersion into hardships is never to be desired, because difficult they are. If, and when, one finds himself or herself in them, the closeness to God is much to be cherished and even missed once they are gone.