afflictions

Billy Graham told the story of a friend he knew who during a time of hardship lost his job, a fortune, a wife, and a home. 

But he held tenaciously to his faith--the only thing he had left.

One day he stopped to watch some men doing stonework on a huge church. One of them was chiseling a triangular piece of stone. "What are you going to do with that?", asked the friend. The workman said, "See that little opening way up there near the spine? Well, I'm shaping this down here, so it will fit in up there." 

To the friend, it was as though God had spoken to his heart through the workman to explain his ordeal he was currently experiencing. "I'm shaping you down here, so you'll fit in up there." 

Our experiences on earth may be the means that God is using to shape us. 

Paul said, "For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison" (2 Corinthians 4:17). 

All of our afflictions help us fit in up there in glory.