Experiment

Sometimes we do odd things in order to understand the world around and ourselves. I think that this is typically a good thing. We test our limits. We try and get a better idea of these limits too. I don't have any other reason for why we do these things, besides that we want to understand. We want more knowledge of things that are not necessarily unknown but rather abstract in a way.
Scientists do this all the time. They take a concept that is either foreign or maybe just something that no one has really thought about in a while and then they test it.
I think sometimes that we wonder if God is like a scientist. I accept that God knows everything, so he's not looking to gain more knowledge but, sometimes it seems that with the things we go through in life are merely tests, or experiments, if you will, that serve only to show how much stress we can take before we snap. I think that sometimes we could even relate our individual relationships with God to a post-mortem bone density test.(basically they put a bone in a vice and measure the pressure it takes to snap the bone.)
But I don't think we could, in all sincerity, veiw God like this truthfully. Granted there are times that in our relationship with God we have growing pains and we are stretched but, it is not in God's character to stretch us so far that we snap. God is a loving god! And that is why we go through different times of stretching and growth.
In some ways this may seem contrary but, it is truth. God loves us enough to let us get hurt. He doesn't go out of his way to make sure that we are in pain or agony but, he lets the decisions we make effect us positively or negatively depending on what we are really looking for.

So back to this concept of experiments... I have no clue how long this will take but, I'm going to try to do it anyway.
I have a brick and I am going to put a hole through it. I will only use my fingers. I will poke the brick in the same spot with each of my four fingers on my left hand 25 times(100) before I go to bed.
There are two goals. One is that I will be able to wear a hole through a brick. And a secondary goal is that I will toughen up my finger tips a bit more for guitar and bass playing.