Last week, I started to answer the question, “Why am I suffering?”

And my message was: The greater the pullback, the greater the come back.

Here’s the Answer: God doesn’t want suffering, He wants the FRUITS of suffering. Yes, suffering has Fruits!

And to continue our discussion, here are the second and third fruits of suffering:

Here’s the second fruit of suffering…

2. Harvest

The bigger the hunger, the bigger the harvest.

Why? Hunger causes momentum. Which produces the Harvest.

Let me explain.

When I was a kid, we had bullies in school. High School punks would visit the Grade School to make our lives miserable.

I had a classmate named Mickey. He was so small, everyone called him Mickey Mouse. He was so small, teachers would say, “Stand up, Mickey!” but he was already standing.

One day, a tall, mean, hairy 16-year old bully walks in and pushes Mickey around. We never knew his name, but we called him King Kong because he had so much body hair. My dwarfish friend pushed back with all his might, but the gorilla was just too big.

What happened next was so memorable to me.

Mikey Mouse walked 10 meters away—spun around—and ran towards the King Kong at full speed. The gorilla didn’t know what hit him. When the Mouse threw himself at the giant, King Kong fell down and crashed on the ground.

Friend, you’ve got obstacles in front of you that are like monsters. The only way to overcome a monster bigger than you is by momentum.

And to gain momentum, you need one essential ingredient: Pull back.

But we don’t like pulling back. Who wants to retreat? So suffering does it for us. Suffering can create momentum by pulling you back.

In my example above, that supervisor had to lose his low paying job so he could find his high paying job. His pull back prepared him for his come back.

Is life pulling you back? Is life taking away your small success? That means God is preparing you for a bigger success.

The Bible says, Yes, you will suffer for a short time. But after that, God will make everything right. (1 Peter 5:10) How? Paul says, And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (Romans 8:28)

The greater the pullback, the greater the come back.

Here’s the third fruit of suffering…

3. Humility

There are two Teachers in life…

Teacher Trial and Teacher Triumph.

Obviously, Teacher Triumph has a lot of fans. Everyone tries to enroll in the class of Teacher Triumph—because she is very delightful. But no one wants to enroll in the class of Teacher Trial—because she’s very difficult.

Here’s the truth: Both are equally excellent Teachers.

But between Teacher Trial and Teacher Triumph, you learn so more from Teacher Trial. Not because of the excellence of the Teacher but the excellence of the Student.

What do I mean? Triumphs make us proud but Trials make us humble. And teachable! Remember that pride is your biggest obstacle towards growth. And our trials force pride out of us.

James says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6)

May your dreams come true,

Bo Sanchez