At the point that Jesus shows up in the storm, He and I become the storm.

I simply cannot afford to be ignorant of the monumental challenges that constantly batter and beset the world around me. But neither can I afford to be ignorant of the cancer of pessimism that constantly rallies the entire weight of its defeatist character in an all-out effort to convince me that the abilities inherent in mankind are far, far too inadequate to challenge the challenges. And it might be that the greatest challenge of all is to challenge this sort of thinking.

The kind of change that occurs when we flee from a problem is likely the very kind of change that caused the very kind of problem that we are running from in the first place.

It’s thinking that I had the solution that probably created the problem in the first place.

At the point that I've allowed my fear of the problem to exceed my faith in God, the problem itself has become my god. And when I am so foolish as to permit gods of this sort, I have chosen to live a life of the most troubled sort.

It’s not so much about the difficult place that I’m at, although that’s what’s probably got most of my attention. Rather, it’s more about how I got here. Because whatever that is, if I don’t change it I’m going to live out the whole of my life is some pretty similar places.

To be your own god is to be the biggest participant in creating your own hell.

Shovels serve two purposes. One is to dig holes and the other is to fill them. And I must say that my life evidences my expertise with the first, but apparently I can’t figure out the second.

It is in attempting to solve all of my problems on my own that I end up creating some of the greatest problems that I’ll ever own.