Pain dutifully reminds me that the world is terribly imperfect, but it faithfully helps me appreciate the world on those days when it’s a little closer to being perfect.

Pain says that if we’re alive enough to feel pain, we’re alive enough to feel joy. It’s just a question of whether we believe that there’s space for both.

I must be ever so careful to remember that my pain is a precious salve that when used in the service of others can heal a thousand wounds and more. And I must likewise remember that if I do not use it as such, I have done nothing more than wound myself yet again.

There is no doubt that the most effective way to heal my pain is to purposefully put it to work healing the pain in the life of another. But that means I must endure the pain of not focusing on 'my' pain.

With God, brokenness is nothing more than the stage upon which the impossible is about to happen.

I need something to remind me that happiness is a gift, not a right. Pain does that quite expertly.

The only way to achieve a dream worth dreaming is to accept the reality that each victory that we experience along the way will be preceded by innumerable failures chronically deep and frequently painful. And our ability to deal with these realities are certain to test both the merit of our dream and the depth of our commitment to it.

She’s gone,” I say over and over. And with her went the dreams that made my life worth the living. Yet, God is the crafter of new dreams that render old dreams so small that the pain of them is swallowed up in the promise of tomorrow.

If the story of my life is about the storms that I have weathered, I will tell you that it is not the force of the storm that matters. What matters is that I had the privilege of the storm so that I might understand the power of the calm.