Sometimes the things we want most in life are the things that will kill us.

The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won't make a story meaningful, it won't make a life meaningful either.

Self-discipline will never make us feel righteous or clean; accepting God's love will.

I often learn more about myself from listening to the life story of a friend than I do reflecting on my own story.

Christ, in short, asks us to give everything, all our false redemption in the lifeboat, all our false ideas about who God is, all our trust in something other than God to redeem us. In so doing, we die to our broken natures in exchange for His perfect nature, and find unification with Him that will allow God to see us as one.

But the people who took the bus didn't experience the city as we experienced the city. The pain made the city more beautiful. The story made us different characters than we would have been if we had skipped the story and showed up at the ending an easier way.

We don't naturally want to take responsibility for our lives. We want to give the responsibility to someone else. We blame them when our lives aren't good.