Give thanks, even for trials?

Consider something I read this morning, if you are going through a rough patch:

But if things go hard with us, and trials darken all our sky, are we still to give thanks, and bless our God? Most surely.

“Trials make the promise sweet;
Trials give new life to prayer;
Trials bring me to His feet,
Lay me low, and keep me there.”

Let us thank God for our trials. We dwell, perhaps, in a land of narrowness. But, like Immanuel Kant’s garden, it is “endlessly high.” The air is fresh, and the sun is clear. The winter is frosty, but kindly. With the springtime comes the singing of birds, and the bloom and fragrance of flowers. And if, even in the summer, there breathes “a nipping and an eager air,” there is always the health-giving smile of God.

On the other hand, how true is the sentence of Augustine, “Earthly riches are full of poverty.” Rich stores of corn and wine will never satisfy a hungry soul. Purple and fine linen may only mask a threadbare life. The shrill blare of fame’s trumpet cannot subdue the discords of the spirit. The best night that Jacob ever spent was that in which a stone was his pillow, and the skies the curtains of his tent. When Job was held in derision by youths whose fathers he would have disdained to set with the dogs of his flock, he was made a spectacle to angels, and became the theme of their wonder and joy. The defeat which Adam sustained in Paradise, the Redeemer retrieved in the desolation of the desert and the anguish of His passion.

The cross we are called to bear may be heavy, but we have not to carry it far. And when God bids us lay it down, heaven begins. (David MacIntyre, "The Hidden Life of Prayer")