Genesis 28

Again, it's amazing to me that God is willing to work with material like Jacob. He's a wily sneaky character, and now he's running away from his problems with Esau rather than facing them. Yet God can work with whatever material humanity gives him. Imagine what he would be able to do in cooperation with some real virtue exerted by someone.

Sometimes when I am tempted to do what is evil, I consider that God is attempting to do something great with my life, even as he is attempting to reform Jacob. Only through cooperating can I hope to climb up the ladder between heaven and Earth, which is in fact near to every human soul, if its owner will open his eyes to see it. While Earth is full of real sorrows, much of our sorrow is simply the result of our inability to trust in God's plan and act like it.

“Oh, what Grace we often forfiet. 

Oh what needless pain we bear! 

All because we do not carry 

Everything to God in prayer."