Destination or Preparation?

I'm about 3/4 of the way through Lost in the Middle: Midlife and the Grace of God by Paul Tripp.  This is the second book I've read by Tripp and it's very good and very convicting and not just for the middle-aged. This quote is taken from the chapter 7 Painful Faith: God's Story and Suffering which references 1 Peter 1.

What are trials? They are God's boiling pot. When we came to Christ we are dross corrupted Christians. We are carrying around inherent corruptions inside of us that rob us of our strength and beauty. So God, in the grandeur and faithfulness of redemptive love, boils us. The difficulties that come our way are not a sign of his unfaithfulness or inattention. No they are an indication of his love. He knows that we are not yet what we were meant to be.  He has dug us out of the mine, but we need to be refined.

Now why is this so hard for us to deal with? I am convinced it is because we tend to live with a destination mentality. We want life to be as easy, satisfying and good as it can be, immediately in the here and now. But this isn't a time of destination. Peter says our destination is guaranteed, but we will not have it now. Now is the time of preparation. It is a time of radical personal growth and change, so God applies white hot heat to prepare us for the destination to come....

I am deeply convinced that we need to be preaching the theology of uncomfortable grace to one another. Peter says that the trials that grieve us are trials of grace. God is patiently and perseveringly doing exactly what he has promised. He is delivering us from sin and forming us into the image of his Son. I am persuaded that many times, as we are wondering where God's grace is and crying out for it, we are actually getting it. The problem is that we are seeking the grace of release, when God knows that we need the grace of refinement. 

Lost in the Middle: Midlife and the Grace of God, Paul David Tripp, Shepherd Press, 2004, pp. 197-198.