I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time- waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God- it changes me.

If you die, I'll die.' 'But is you live, I'll live.' - Bowman and Kestrel, Firesong

Here I am going to say something which may come as a bit of a shock. God doesn't necessarily want us to be happy. He wants us to be lovable. Worthy of love. Able to be loved by Him. We don't start off being all that lovable, if we're honest. What makes people hard to love? Isn't it what is commonly called selfishness? Selfish people are hard to love because so little love comes out of them.

God creates us free, free to be selfish, but He adds a mechanism that will penetrate our selfishness and wake us up to the presence of others in this world, and that mechanism is called suffering.

We read to know that we are not alone.

Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn fast.

There is this notion that the lives of the comfortable-off middle class don't merit being treated seriously and with compassion.