I believe our whole lives as saints is toiling in the foundations. I was a bricklayer for over 25 years, our worse job was always laying the foundations. We were underground in cramped narrow footings. Oftentimes the footings were deep and full of water and mud and the steep sides always held the possibility of collapse. Getting material down into the footings was difficult. Every step was difficult, plowing our way through the mud, we were typically wet and filthy. Yet, in order to rise up out of the ground, to break the surface and back-fill the foundations so that the structure could continue upwards, this vital backbreaking work had to be done. This is our spiritual work here on earth, laying the foundations for a heavenly mansion.
We could never do it in our own strength for unless the Lord builds this house then we labor in vain. If you find yourself in deep and difficult footings, if the circumstances of your life seem to be so more difficult than others, know this saint, it is because the structure that awaits you is large. Small houses require small and shallow foundations. Large structures require deep and difficult foundations. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad when you find yourself in the deep, for great is your reward in heaven.
Keep moving upwards. We shall break the surface of this world we dwell in and find ourselves in the glorious Kingdom of God. We will have thrown of our mortal coils. We shall be like a seed planted deep under the ground. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it produces much fruit. Our lives, brothers and sisters, is exactly like that grain of wheat. This life is the dying. In this life we find ourselves covered my the mortality of the soil that is around us. It is our place of death and life. The work of dying and the work of living is our sanctification. Breaking through the soil is to cast off the darkness of this world. Seek to live and you shall die, die and you shall be reborn and through you shall come much fruit.