None of us can expect to go through life and get his work done without encountering obstructions and hindrances. Go at this life where you will and there are troubles to be met, trials to be faced, afflictions to be endured, difficuities to be overcome.
However worthy you may be; however worthy the object for which you labor, you are bound to suffer some hardships; some ill treatment.
"It's a hard path that you and I have to travel", writes author John R. Gunn. "The apostle James would have us draw inspiration from the example of the prophets - Take the prophets for an example of suffering affliction and of patience, he advises. The prophets were men devoted to high ideals. For the sake of their ideals, they suffered great afflictions with great patience. They were committed men and they allowed nothing to turn them from that to which they had committed themselves."
It is well to consider these ancient examples, but we can find equally inspiring examples among the people of our time. One need not go beyond his own community to find men and women who are winning great victories; some of them perhaps against desperate odds. It's amazing what many of these people endure, yet their patience and courage never failed.
Notwithstanding their suffering and sorrows, they go on facing up to the world, making a happy and useful thing of life. Let us draw encouragement and stimulation for our own hearts from these splendid examples. Let us say, each of us to himself, if these people can suffer and still carry on, I can and I will, God helping me.