When I was in seminary I heard a speaker make a statement that at the time I scarcely believed. Quoting A. W. Tozer, the speaker said, “God cannot use a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.” Around the same time I read a similar observation by Alan Redpath: “When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him.” Could that possibly be true? I wondered. Does God ever bring hurt to our lives—even for the purpose of refining us or increasing