Life is a challenging endeavor most of the time. Then there are those key moments in life when the challenge is multiplied by 100. Everyone experiences crisis moments, tragedies, painful moments of failure, ect… The prevailing notion among most human beings, especially Americans, is that emotional pain and crisis situations are bad things. They are unwanted disruptions of our lives and have no value. I believe this is an unfortunate mentality that we have adopted. The bible has much to say about trials and suffering in life. In a nut shell it says that this is the primary way, maybe the only way, God can bring healing, growth, maturity and truth into our existence. Painful circumstances breeds humility (an understanding of our weakness and limitation). It’s a tool for God to reveal a very important truth to each of His precious creations. The truth is that we were created to be totally reliant on God, because in reality if we try to do life our own way it will be at the very least a failure and at the most a disaster. (The photo is Lee, an American who came over to coach and lead at the camp, great guy. And Andrea, a wonderful Slovak girl who attended her second consecutive baseball camp this year).