I no longer believe love works like a fairy tale but like farming. Most of it is just getting up early and tilling the soil and then praying for rain. But if we do the work, we just might wake up one day to find an endless field of crops rolling into the horizon. In my opinion, that's even better than a miracle. I'd rather earn the money than win the lottery because there's no joy in a reward unless it comes at the end of a story.

Here are two things I found taking the long road, though: Applause is a quick fix. And love is an acquired taste.

I told her how frustrating it is to be a Christian in America, and how frustrated I am with not only the church's failures concerning human rights, but also my personal failure to contribute to the solution.

It is when people do not allow God to show up through them, she realized, that the world collapses in on itself.

Life is a game of statistics. There are no guarantees, but the more positive effort you put in, the more likely you will be to win.

I've learned there are givers and takers in this life. I've slowly let the takers go and I've had it for the better. God bless them, when they learn to play by the rules they are welcomed back, but my heart is worth protecting.

Following your convictions means you must be willing to face criticism from those who lack the same courage to do what is right. It's called the road less traveled.

Nothing worth doing ever, ever, ever came easy.

There are no spiritual games without pains. I would soon expect farmer just prosper in business who contended himself with sowing fields and never looking at them till harvest as expect a believer to attain much holiness who is not diligent in his Bible reading, his prayers, and his use of Sundays.

Anything is better than apathy, stagnation, deadness, and indifference.

Our God is a God of order, and a God who works by means, and we have no right to expect His cause to be kept up by constant miraculous interpositions, while His servants stand idle.

Excitement may galvanize the Christian's hands into a fitful and spasmodic activity. But there will be no patient continuance in well-doing, no unwearied labour in missionary work at home or abroad, without love.