It seems logical that the closer a person gets to God, the happier his or her life should be. God’s faithful servants should experience less stress, less conflict and fewer hardships than other people. However, in the first chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul reveals that this is not the case at all: “We do not want you to be unaware, friends, about the problems which happened to us in Asia. We faced enormous difficulties beyond our control, so that we almost gave up hope of living. We felt like we had been condemned to death. This happened so that we could learn not to rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.”
Those who become Christians expecting to be rewarded with financial prosperity, personal comforts and the good life seem to be living in a world entirely different from that of Paul. In Paul’s world, someone who wants to become closer to Christ voluntarily takes on Christ’s sufferings and a life of hardship in order to serve others. Instead of sitting back and letting good things come, a Christian leader leaps in where there are troubles.
It all comes down to a question of purpose. If your purpose is to improve your own life, then you will do whatever you can to avoid and lessen troubles and hardships. If, on the other hand, your purpose is to serve God to the greatest extent possible, then your own prosperity becomes largely irrelevant in the face of a much greater task.