eminent afflictions

I have to share this excerpt with you.
I seriously think God laughs at me sometimes...like I'm just praying, "God, why this...and why that...?" and then after further exemplifications of questioning from my end, He just takes me by the shoulder and whisks His hand outward, showing me the magnificence that I had been so clearly missing. Okay seriously, if you are one who gets stuck in the plodding of life and the monotony of the everyday..please continue reading.

This is from my beloved, little, 1925 copyrighted version of Streams in the Desert. It's corners are worn, the dark orange cover is fading, and the binding has officially cracked, but it continues to pour forth unbelievable wisdom everytime I pick it up...

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." (Rev. 3:19)
God takes the most eminent and choicest of His servants for the choicest and most eminent afflictions. They who have received most grace from God are able to bear most afflictions from God. Affliction does not hit the saint by chance, but by direction. God does not draw His bow at a venture. Every one of His arrows goes upon a special errand and touches no breast but his against whom it is sent. It is not only the grace, but the glory of a believer when we can stand and take affliction quietly. - Joseph Caryl.

If all my days were sunny, could I say,
"In His fair land He wipes all tears away"?

If I were never weary, could I keep
Close to my heart, "He gives His loved ones sleep"?

Were no graves mine, might I not come to deem
The Life Eternal but a baseless dream?

My winter, and my tears, and weariness,
Even my graves, may be His way to bless.

I call them ills; yet that can surely be
Nothing but love that shows my Lord to me!

Okay, okay so the poetry is a bit cheesy...but seriously, isn't this ridiculous? I don't think affliction is necessarily focusing on the most noted of troubles but includes many things...encompassing both the dull and weary day, as well as the petty grievances of a week. Sometimes the Lord is silent...and boy do I need to learn to not complain or question in these times.

It's freeing to realize and remember that just because we don't feel God doesn't mean He is far or has chosen to stop working.