“Suffering strips away the self. This sounds terribly painful, and it is. But the meaning and object of suffering isn't pain; it is to learn to give and receive love. God isn't a sadist who delights in using agony to teach us a lesson. But in the alchemy of redemption, God can take what is only sorrow and transform it into the very path by which we learn to love God and let ourselves be loved. This is the strange (and usually unwanted) way of abundant life - the dying necessary to bring resurrection.” LovePainSufferingRedemptionAbundant Life Book:Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep Source: Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep
“I face things every day, big and small, that are difficult but have not killed me. And I'm finding that what doesn't kill me actually makes me weaker, and maybe that's the point - that the way of glory is discovered through, and only through, the cross. In life's school of love, suffering - what doesn't kill us - makes us more alive to our need and helplessness and, therefore, more able to give and receive love.” LoveSufferingWeakness Book:Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep Source: Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep