C.S. Lewis

That is why we must not be surprised if we are in for 

a rough time.  When a man turns to Christ and seems

to be getting on pretty well (in the sense that some of 

his bad habits are now corrected), he often feels that

it would now be natural if things went fairly smoothly.

When troubles come along - illnesses, money troubles,

new kinds of temptation - he is disappointed.  These

things, he feels, might have been necessary to rouse

him and make him repent in his bad old days; but why

now?  Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher

level: putting him in situations where he will have to

be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving,

than he ever dreamed of being before.  It seems to us

all unnecessary: but that is because we have not yet

had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He

means to make of us.

I find I must borrow yet another parable from George

MacDonald.  Imagine yourself as a living house.  God

comes in to rebuild that house.  At first, perhaps, you

can understand what He is doing.  He is getting the

drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so

on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you 

are not surprised.  But presently he starts knocking the 

house about in a way that hurts abominably and does

not seem to make sense.  What on earth is He up to?

The explanation is that He is building quite a different

house from the one you thought of - throwing out a

new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running

up towers, making courtyards.  You thought you were

going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He

is building a palace.  He intends to come in and live in it

Himself.