Toenails and Teaching Stories

Romans 8:28 is a really abused passage, but I think that it is important for our everyday sanity. I don't think that it means that God makes everything happen. He just takes whatever crap happens, and tuns it into furtilizer. Not the most poetic of thoughts, but it works. Many of us should approach more things in life with that in mind.
For example, today I got my ingrown toenail removed. It sucked. Unfourtunatly, God made me to be resistant to anesthesia. They did as much as they could to numb my toes, but it didn't work out as much as it should have, so it hurt. All day it has been nagging at me. I was really scared as I went. However, as I went, I thought that I maybe should look at it as an adventure. That was kind of stupid, but it worked some. When I looked back at some of the horrible experiences in my life, I realized all of the things that I have learned from those experiences. Much later on they became great stories and examples for future lessons.
When we go through things in life, we should realize the lessons that we might learn from it. In the end all things will pass. We can take from what has happened. Life should be embraced because we never know what we learn. Such a view can help us to really enjoy even bad things. We see life as a gift of God, not as something that just happens.