This book describes how God prepares believers for "life that is real life." We study and pray and seek righteous living, but there is no ultimate growth and maturity without God's training. There is no short-cut and no avoidance: We must be trained To understand God's training, we must also understand the purpose for His creation of man, the reasons for suffering, and His plan for drawing us closer to Him. God's training is intense and unpredictable, but the One who is training us does so in love and grace, and He offers with each new event specific resources to help us endure and draw maximum benefit from the experience.