Suffering as a Kidnapper... but also as a Teacher

Here's a little excerpt on suffering that I came across. It's from Paul Tripp, a Christian counsellor, who writes about his daughter's recovery from a car accident, in which she was hit and crushed against a wall, leaving her seriously injured. Paul writes in one entry in his blog:


It's hard not to look at the day as a day of futile activity accompanied by needless discomfort. You can't honestly look at the day and make sense out of it... Suffering transports you beyond the boundaries of your reason and your control... Suffering is a kidnapper that comes into our lives, blindfolds us, and takes us to where we do not want to be.
But suffering is not just a kidnapper, it is also a teacher... It points you to the fact that there is little you can actually control. It instructs you as to where reliable comfort and sturdy hope can be found. Like a patient teacher with a resistant student, suffering pries open your hands and asks you to let go of your life. Suffering invites you to find security, rest, hope, and comfort in Another, and in so doing, assaults the irrationality of personal sovereignty that is the delusion of every human being. In that way, suffering is not just a kidnapper, and not just a teacher, it is also a liberator. Suffering frees us to experience a deeper comfort and hope than we have ever had before (From nicolenews.blogspot.com, June 11, 2006, as quoted in Tim Chester, You Can Change (Nottingham:Inter-Varsity Press, 2008), 161).


What deep words! But also... what true words for us who believe!