Christianity is in no way a stoic faith. It fundamentally rejects the "stiff upper lip" school of thought.

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.

I didn't realize that I was in a self-made prison of human approval and human acceptance. Didn't even realize it. Most of the prisons we live in we are not conscious of.

If you feel compelled to respond every time you're criticized it reveals just how much you've built your identity on being right.

Grace always runs downhill, meeting us at the bottom, not the top.

The bad news that we are all guilty is met with the best news that God loves and forgives guilty people.

Whether it's a Christian or a non-Christian, there's nothing like suffering to show us how small, needy, and not in control we are. Suffering has a way of sobering us up to the realization that we can't make it on our own, that we need help, that we're broken.