"It is good for me that I have been afflicted"; notmany of us will spontaneously agree with this sentiment of the Psalmist.

Job says: "I have dealt with great things that I do not understand". Whenever we face some great affliction, like Job, we are dealing with great things that we do not understand.

It will generally, though not immediately, be obvious to us how great affliction can genuinely be a channel of God's saving grace. With experience, we can contemplate Jesus' Agony in the Garden and his great torment on the cross and learn to understand that all his affliction was indeed saving grace for us.