I was spending way too much time thinking about me and what I needed to do, and far too little time thinking about Jesus and what he had already done for me.

The Bible makes it clear that self-righteousness is the premier enemy of the Gospel.

The gospel is for the defeated, not the dominant.

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.

God reminds us again and again that things between He and us are forever fixed. They are the rendezvous points where God declares to us concretely that the debt has been paid, the ledger put away, and that everything we need, in Christ we already possess. This re-convincing produces humility, because we realize that our needs are fulfilled. We don’t have to worry about ourselves anymore. This in turn frees us to stop looking out for what we think we need and liberates us to love our neighbor by looking out for what they need.

Our minds are affected by sin. Our hearts are affected by sin. Our wills are affected by sin. Our bodies are affected by sin.

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.