Any system of government will work when everything is going well. It's the system that functions in the pinches that survive

Great work is always shunned at first.

Great work is the result of seeking out tension, not avoiding it.

Every stumble is not a fall, and every fall does not mean failure.

Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, 'Shake well before using.' That is what God has to do with some of His people. He has to shake them well before they are ever usable.

Suffering is the very best gift He has to give us. He gives it only to His chosen friends.

Nothing can withstand the power of the human will if it is willing to stake its very existence to the extent of its purpose.

Maybe the only enemy is that we don't like the way reality is *now* and therefore wish it would go away fast. but what we find as practitioners is that nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.

The only way God can strengthen his presence in our will is to weaken his presence in our feelings. Otherwise we would become spiritual cripples, unable to walk without emotional crutches. This is why he gives us dryness, sufferings, and failures.

Love is strengthened and perfected by suffering. Couples who have had only ease lack depth. True love needs to suffer. "The course of true love never did run smooth." Kindness—mere kindness—cannot tolerate suffering. Love can.

Even saints do not smile sweetly when God throws them into mud puddles. Only pigs do that.

No happiness on earth can be deeper than the happiness that comes from our willing and active submission to God's will even when he wills suffering.