Photo by  Alphacolor  on  Unsplash I lit a candle and settled into my favorite chair, allowing the silence to embrace me before pressing play on the Bible in a Year podcast. At my current pace it will take several years to finish what the title suggests could be completed in one. But I am finally okay with that. I’ve learned the title is not a rule I must follow, and that any pace other than my own robs me of the time my heart needs to soak in God’s Word. As the podcast played I followed along in my Bible, reading and listening, and soon encountering a verse of Psalm 119 that jumped off the page in ridiculous fashion: It was good for me to be afflicted, in order to learn your statutes (Psalm 119:71) What? It was good for me to be afflicted? Perhaps afflicted has an alternate definition of which I am unaware? But, no, a quick Google search revealed that is not the case. Afflicted. A word synonymous with physical or mental suffering. Severe pain and distress. Persistent anguish. Afflict