The Good and the Bad of Life

"Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just
coming out of one, or you're getting ready to  go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character
than your comfort.

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in
making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal
of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the
toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to  think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a
dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't
believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of
like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have
something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always
something bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always
something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your
problems.

If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness,
'which is my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest
ways to get rid of pain  is to get your focus off yourself and onto
God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of
thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it
easy for her.

It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her
character, given her a ministry of  helping other people, given her
a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life."

-Rick Warren