Holy Saturday. The best reminder that the silence of God doesn't equal the absence of God.

The more I focused on my need to get better the worse I actually got - the more neurotic and self-conscious and self-absorbed I became.

The deepest cry of the human heart is to be loved without condition, no matter what. The gospel of grace announces that you are.

God is not interested in what you think you should be or feel. He is not interested in the narrative you construct for yourself, or that others construct for you. Rather, He is interested in you, the you who suffers, the you who inflicts suffering on others, the you who hides, the you who has bad days (and good ones). And He meets you where you are.

The truth is that when it comes to suffering, if we do not go to our graves in confusion, we will not go to our graves trusting. Explanations are a substitute for trust.

Sometimes God has to remind you that you're weak so that you can be set free from your "self-sufficiency."

I agree we have enough books that attempt to explain why God allows suffering, presumably in a way that lets God off the hook. And while much smarter men than I have constructed elaborate systems in this pursuit, they are by definition exercises in speculation.