We all suffer and experience loss but at times during our suffering and loss, we experience success and comfort. The person who is good at success and comfort is also the kind of person who recognizes the deeper story in the middle of it. This person is probably a good suffer as well.
Upon their success or comfort they ask themselves: Did I see the deeper story? Did I see the small and large acts of courage and love that happened in the middle of it? Did I see courage and love and beauty and heart? When they choose to ask these quesitons and enter the deeper story, they experience feelings of gratitude and joy.
We embrace success, comfort, blessing, and honor well when we fully accept them and see the story for what it is. C.S. Lewis explains this well when he talks about how a great architect can look at his or her own work and say "Wow! This building and its design are awesome!" The success itself isn't the ultimate goal. It is the story behind the success or the enjoyment of a comfort earned or unearned that speaks of glory and grandeur.
In this, success and comfort point to the divine and sucess and comfort are connected to intimacy rather than vanity and idolatry. Success, comfort, suffering, and pain are connected when we realize that the deeper theme of story and where that story leads are more powerful and beauty than the success and suffering themselves. It is always a way in which we are pointed to intimacy and the divine.
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