Every adversity in life is intended to be responded to in a way that protects us from something worse. So either we make good on it, that is, grow with it, or we make matters worse.
Hence the questions:
Whether we are growing or not is known by its fruit: we know we are growing when we are becoming more helpful to others.
How do we grow? When things are not to our liking it means asking Jesus straight up: “how can I be more helpful to you in what you’d like to do in me or through me in the face of this difficulty?”
When we help Jesus do his work in us or through us, he invariably makes us more helpful to others.
