It is clear that God is pleased to grant his support to the weak rather than the strong, to those who are conscious of their weakness, of their failures, of their faults and of their powerlessness to overcome them, rather than to those who are self-satisfied and proud of their victories over themselves and of their social success and their faith. Brett Blair, Sermon Illustrations, 1998. The old village preacher said that sickness has its value, because when your flat on your back, there's no place to look but up. With such a focus life can take on different proportions. Don't court pain, but if and when it comes, embrace it.
Pain can be a wondrous teacher.
Affliction is particularly effective in helping us reevaluate our priorities. When Thomas Chalmers became pastor of the church at Kilmany, Scotland in 1803, he was a young man of twenty-three with little real interest in religion. He had taken the parish primarily so that he could also teach mathematics and astronomy. As time went by, Chalmers neglected sermon preparation and the care of his people. The church went into steady and precipitous decline.