God's megaphone?

I've been thinking a lot recently about the place of conflict in our lives. I think it's pretty fair to say that it is a biblical concept that God uses trials to shape our lives and teach us more about both himself and ourselves. But I've been wondering whether they are a necessary part of discovering God, or whether it is the only way that he can get us to pay attention.

I raised the idea with some colleagues the other day, and the the responses varied. Some thought that trials were inevitable - life is never straightforward and God just uses what comes up to refine us. Others thought that even if we were able to cut straight through and learn directly about God, that we would still struggle but just with more advanced things. To my surprise none of them seemed to feel that we could grow without trials.

The conversation brought to mind the film Shadowlands. In it C S Lewis is depicted as saying

I'm not sure that God particularly wants us to be happy. He wants us to love and be loved. He wants us to grow up. I suggest to you that it is because God loves us that he makes us the gift of suffering. Or to put it another way, pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

At least part of this is a quotation from The Problem of Pain although I haven't been able to verify the full statement as being authentic Lewis. Regardless it is a hard statement, and one I find I cannot entirely buy into.

I see that being put in a place where we have run out of our own resources places our dependence on God. I'm just not entirely sure that it follows that such a place is the only place where we can grow...