There are lessons to learn which are so hard that unless we have implicit trust in our divine teacher, we will give up and say, there must be an easier way. But God knows the way we must take and what is required in each individual case. He takes account of all the circumstances of each one and knows how we will respond to every situation. It is not the way that we should choose for ourselves and often we cannot even understand how it is doing us good, until we are well through the instruction and looking back on it. If we are only prepared to be taught as long as we understand the mind of our teacher and can see where he is going next, we are like children being taught to swim who insist on keeping their feet on the bottom. On the other hand, if we have that supreme trust in God which keeps our eye fixed on him, it will not only make the lessons of providence easier to handle, it will make them more profitable. We will approach them in a teachable frame of mind and God will be able to end the more uncomfortable lessons sooner.
We might as well expect to remain conscious and direct the surgeon in how to use the knife. Not that we are unconscious under the hand of God, but we are certainly not the ones who possess the knowledge or the skill to carry out the task. Can we give any worthwhile advice to infinite wisdom? Can we see the path he takes and understand how each event in our lives contributes to the total lesson which he wants to teach us, or when that lesson is complete? We do not understand our own failings and what lessons we need to learn, nor do we understand ourselves well enough to know how we will react to these lessons. God works alone and his own wisdom guides him and we thank him that it is so and that he does not consult his creatures who know nothing. Far less are we in a position to correct him as Job had been trying to do.