After college and marriage, I found it easy to put on weight and get out of shape. A year ago, I became committed to working hard to take the "sag" out of my sagging waistline. Day after day, I worked hard on cardiovascular exercise and weight training, seeming to get nowhere. Straining. Sweating. Sucking wind. Questioning my sanity.

But then after several months, it was as though a quantum leap occurred. Weight began to drop off. Muscle began to get toned. And endurance increased significantly. Medical friends tell me that during the constancy of working out, regardless of how I felt, a whole new freeway system of small blood vessels and capillaries was forming within my body. Then came the day when they decided it was time for a "grand opening." Suddenly, more blood came flooding into the muscle tissue, and the resultant benefits seemed to be exponential.

Likewise, when we're walking through the depths of trials, God is building up a secondary support system of endurance, that we might be even more prepared for the next time adversity comes our way.