Well, it tells me not to lie around complaining and waiting for someone else to fix my troubles, but to move forward step by step to get through my trials, looking straight ahead to my savior...getting closer to Him with each step.

There are many different perspectives, aren't there? This is one of those "open-ended" stories since we don't know how it actually ends. For me, at any rate, it shows us how it is possible for Yahweh to use all things and situations for the good. I don't know what the writer had in mind when the donkey suddenly quietened down. I suspect, though I don't know, that he changed focus from his suffering and began to see a window of opportunity that would lead to his salvation. Why does Yahweh permit us to go through so much suffering (and I mean specifically the kind we don't bring upon ourselves)? We know the pet theological answers but I think for everybody the situation is so uniquely different that we can never come to an understanding of our own predicament by comparing with others except in a very general sense, forcing us to trust the Creator to make all things right. They key is our focus. So for me the key event in the story is the donkey altering perspective - we're not told exactly how, but we can reasonably guess. Things change and our situations improve when we turn our focus for deliverance to Yah'shua and not allow ourselves to be "buried" by all the dirt being thrown at us. Then amazing things start happening and from the most unexpected sources.