There is nothing worth living for, unless it is worth dying for.

Sometimes God's refusals are His mercies.

If we hold tightly to anything given to us unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used we stunt the growth of the soul. What God gives us is not necessarily "ours" but only ours to offer back to him, ours to relinguish, ours to lose, ours to let go of, if we want to be our true selves. Many deaths must go into reaching our maturity in Christ, many letting goes.

One step at a time, over the years, as I sought to plumb the mystery of suffering (which cannot be plumbed), I began to see that there is a sense in which everything is a gift. Even my widowhood.

Praise and glory to God for whom nothing is too hard

The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.

The only crown Jesus ever wore on earth was a crown of thorns.