Faith isn't the ability to believe long and far into the misty future. It's simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step.

Cancer is such a wake-up call to remind us how high the cosmic stakes really are and how short and brief and frail life really is.

Thankfully, God brought wise Christian friends alongside to help me discover life-transforming precepts in his Word.

True, God hates Alzheimer's, spinal cord injury, mental illness, autism, and the rest (these conditions are all symptoms of the Fall). Yet he permits these things to accomplish something far more precious in our lives: patience, endurance, compassion for others who hurt, and refined faith and trust in God, to name a few.

Take those road hazards- the potholes, ruts, detours, and all the rest- as evidence that you were on the right route. It's when you find yourself on that big, broad, easy road that you ought to worry.

Suffering is arguably God's choicest tool in shaping the character of Christ in us.

God is truly on the side of those who work for social justice, especially when we accompany that work with the giving of the Gospel!