Meister Eckhart on Suffering

For those that don't know, Meister Eckhart was a 13th century German mystic. In the process of reading one of his books I came across this section on suffering which I found profound. I have cobbled together a few of these thoughts.

"Supposing someone has for many years had honour and well-being and that now, by God's design, he loses it. Then a man should take wise thought and thank God. When he realizes the present harm and misfortune, he will appreciate how much advantage and security he had before, and he shall thank God for the well-being he enjoyed for so many years without appreciating how well off he was, and he should not be angry.... ....Since all that is good or consoling or temporal is given to man as a  loan, what has he to complain of when he, who has lent it, will take it back? He ought to thank God that he has lent it to him for so long...

...If, then, you would like to be God's son and yet not suffer, you are very wrong. It is written in the Book of Wisdom that God examines and searches who is just in the same way as gold is proved and burned in the furnace. It is a sign that the King or Prince trusts the Knight well if he sends him into combat. I have seen a Lord who sometimes, when he had accepted someone among his followers, sent him out into the night and then attacked him himself and fought with him. And once it happened that he was nearly killed by someone whom he meant to try in this way, and he liked this man much better than before...

....Silver and gold are indeed pure; yet, if they are to be made into a cup from which the King should drink, they would be burned very much more than otherwise."