We can wander into a wilderness so vast and entangled that it will consume us or we can plummet to depths dark beyond dark, only to discover that God was sitting there waiting for us before we ever started wandering or falling.

I have been driven to desperation more times than I can count. But it is here that I have been driven to the greatest inspiration that I can contain.

I ask, ‘Is the cup half-empty or half-full?’ And when I ask that question, I am amazed at how many people have no cup.

We desperately want to believe in something. To simply live out our lives believing in nothing is to live as if this thing we call life is filled with nothing but nothing.

In my desperation, I have finally discovered that the only way that I can begin to fill the gaping hole within me is to be thankful for what’s there, and not angry for what’s not.

Too often our lives are soiled to desperation by endings that in reality are magnificently outnumbered by beginnings. And unless we become convinced that an ending is always the birthplace of a beginning that is on its way, we will live terribly soiled lives.

Despite the frequent desperation, I cannot give up. For when I give up, the cause that I am fighting for might be diminished by my absence, but the person who I am is destroyed by my cowardice.