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

If we were willing to take the trial in our hands and peel back the pain, underneath the layers we would find unimagined opportunity. So maybe we should practice peeling.

The challenge is never based on the size of the obstacle that stands before me. Rather, it is dictated by the degree of faith that rests within me.

The very places that we presume God not to be are the very places that are filled with His footprints and littered with His fingerprints.

I have yet to learn that I am not designed to carry the burden of men. Rather, I am designed to carry the love of God so that I might soothe the burden of men.

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.

When I’m at the bottom looking up, the main question may not be ‘how do I get out of this hole?’ In reality, the main question might be ‘how do I get rid of the shovel that I used to dig it?

Do not confuse trials with failure, as trials speak to the size of the thing to which we have been called and not the difficulties of the journey that are part of getting there.

Although it may be phenomenally difficult to ferret out at times, there is always something that I can appreciate in every tragedy that befalls me. And despite how small that bit of appreciation might be, if I start with that I will find that I am winning the battle before I ever start fighting it.