We often look at the lives of heroic Christians like Apostle Paul, Charles Spurgeon, or others and forget the hardships and difficulties they faced. Mrs. Charles B. Cowman wrote that “Every flower, even the fairest, has its shadow beneath it as it swings in the sunlight. Where there is much light there is much shade.” Though lives like Paul and Spurgeon shown much light, their lives were also marked by much “shade.” In this sermon, Pastor Eric Ludy encourages us to embrace the difficulties, trials, and hardships that come our way—as that is often a tool God uses to declare the power of the Gospel even more through our lives. For as Paul reminds us, “Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”