Gain or Loss?

I was reading my Streams in the Desert devotional the other day when I read something about Paul's vision for his life that made me stop in my tracks and pull an immediate re-read. He was speaking about gain and loss. "To live is Christ, to die is gain." The author poses the question: "Why is it that most of what Paul considers gain, we consider loss?" And it is true. We pray that God would save us from health issues, from stress, from heartache, from conflict, from negative insert-word-into-blank-here. We don't want to be troubled (and I think that this is natural). But these are the very things that bring Paul joy: he considers them "gain." How do we change our way of thinking to match Paul's? I have no idea. But I do know that the past 2 months, my relationship with God is better than ever. Not because my life is easy and that I have a-z going on for me. But because I am relying on Him more each day. I am on my knees in my classroom begging Him to move. I am looking around me and realizing that, even in the dark times, I am so blessed beyond belief.
My charge for anyone that reads this is to reflect. What in your life right now are you counting as loss that is really bringing you closer to God? Do you trust Him to be enough?