God is so amazing in how He brings just the right verse at the right time.

I've been struggling with depression and many of the things associated with a mid-life crisis (self-doubt, worthlessness, lack of meaning, desire to define myself through things, etc.), and on top of that, my wife just had her second consecutive miscarriage.

God, however, showed me this living hope into which I've been born. This hope which is Truth. Truth. Not fact, not experience, not perceived reality, but T-R-U-T-H, Truth. Created by God in Himself. This Truth shatters the perceptions and "realities" that are of this world and creates something greater.

It is through this living hope that my wife and I can see God's love through the loss of a child, we can see that God has a plan, because our hearts have hope. We know that our Father only wants what is best for us, and what is best for us is a strong relationship with Him. It is faith that has been tested, refined to make it pure. It is through the heat of the trials of life that God can remove the dross from our faith until it is pure.

All of the polish in the world can't make gold give up its dross, neither can anything pleasant make us give up our impurities. Gold requires intense heat before the dross comes to the surface to be removed by the refiner - only then can gold be pure. We require discomfort of varying intensities before our impurities of heart surface, and only after they've surfaced can our Refiner remove them from us, making our faith genuine.

1 Peter 1:3-9