We can’t expect the nation to operate by Christian principles… but we can expect this of the church.

God has, quite literally, all the time in the world for each one of us.

We tend to think, 'Life should be fair because God is fair.' But God is not life. And if I confuse God with the physical reality of life- by expecting constant good health for example- then I set myself up for crashing disappointment.

Individuals and societies are not helpless victims of heredity. We have the power to change - not by looking "down" to nature but "up" to God, who consistently calls us forward to become the people we were designed to be. A confused world urgently needs a model of what that looks like. If Christians fail to provide that model, who will?

Faith in God offers no insurance against tragedy.

Pain narrows vision. The most private of sensations, it forces us to think of ourselves and little else.

The surgery of life hurts. It helps me, though, to know that the surgeon himself, the Wounded Surgeon, has felt every stab of pain and every sorrow.