It was good for me to be afflicted.
—Psalm 119:71
“There are no atheists in foxholes” is an aphorism that alleges every person will reach for God when facing life-threatening danger.
That isn’t indisputably true, but crises do cause us to give sober thought to things previously considered trivial—or not considered at all.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote: “It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. . . . So bless you, prison, for having been in my life.”
The psalmist said it this way: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. . . . It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees” (Ps 119:67, 71).
In the crucible of crisis, a spark of faith is often fanned into flame.
When you walk out of a storm,
you won’t be the same person who walked into it.