I remember, I remember...

Reading a little from the book dedicated to mourning and sorrow. (Lamentations 3)
The author writes about his grief: "I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall ...and my soul is downcast within me."
Basically, he reflects on his trials, but also how he has wandered away from God. And how all of this has caused him bitterness and frustration.
How often has affliction caused us to wander? Why do struggles often lead us away from God? You think we would have learned by now. In trials, Job was tempted to 'curse God and die'. In truth, that is our main temptation: to lose faith in the face of hardship.
It's the same old story: things are going well, we praise God. Things turn for the worse, and we have a decision to make - do we thank God for the struggle, or do we lose faith?
In a cloud of frustration, it's hard to remember that trials are meant to develop perseverance and maturity in us. God allows us to struggle because it has the potential to make us whole. It's his desire to make us whole. (see James 1)
If anything, let's take a cue from the Lamenter and remember our past wandering, and how that brings nothing but grief. Let us remember our former trials and how God worked in them to bring us strength, when we allowed it. May we allow it today.