Sorrows and Adversities

It is good for us that we sometimes have sorrows and adversities, for they often make us lay to heart that we are only strangers and sojourners, and may not put our trust in any worldly thing. It is good that we sometimes endure contradictions, and are hardly and unfairly judged, when we do and mean what is good. For these things help us to be humble and shield us from vainglory. For then we seek more earnestly the witness of God, when men speak evil of us falsely, and give us no credit for good. ~Thomas à Kempis