There's a difference between GOD hurting us and US hurting us

This is from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis.
It is in reference to the Lion removing the dragon skin from Eustace:
"The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he befan pulling the skin off, it jurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off."

This is a stupendous metaphor, I think.
The Lord does exactly that. But the thing is, our old, thick, dragon scale flesh takes our entire lives to peel off, I'm afraid.
Because I know that sometimes, the things the Lord does to me hurt something awful. But when He's done, and I have learned my lesson, I know it was worth it. Because He's making me into a man- slowly. And painfully.

That's the way the Lord hurts you.

There's a difference, folks, between that and the hurt that a person inflicts.
Someone recently said to me that we need to be hurt sometimes, and that the Lord uses it to make us who He wants to be.
And I agreed at the time.

But now I disagree.
The idea I have chosen to replace that other one with goes something like this:
It's one thing to allow and plead the Lord to grow us in whatever way He deems appropriate; it is something entirely different to open ourselves to needless pain with the claim that "if it happens, God wants it."

I think that's actually a very foolish idea.