But suffering can either destroy you or it can save you. Because without suffering, we don't need more; we have enough. But when we suffer, we can't help but reach out. It forces us into God's arms, and that's where we find not only what we need, but more than we can imagine. We find Him.

Then Jesus healed the man. I think the important thing here is that we can't always pin down reasons for tragedy. Life is tough—you know that. But every hard moment can be met by God, used by God. That's the glory of it. We can ask why, but we may never find the answer. But we will find God if we turn to Him. In that surrender, He'll turn the tragedy into something for His glory and your eternal good, according to His will.

Listen, the character of God is full of mercy—not giving us what we do deserve—and grace—giving us what we don't deserve. You say you don't deserve God's help, but by your very words, you prove He isn't trying to destroy your dreams. Ask God for help. If you don't think you deserve it, then perhaps that is exactly what God wants to delight you with, to show how much He loves you.

Trouble always feels personal. But it doesn't mean that God doesn't care about you. That He's out to get you. In fact, the opposite is true. God deliberately put Himself in the way of the ultimate tragedy to save you. That's what grace is...and frankly, He uses trouble to show you Himself.

God is glorified not in your strengths and not in your gratefulness, but in your weaknesses and in your trust in His future grace. In your faith that God didn't let you

Dodge, be honest. It's not close to over. You've been nursing this wound for nearly ten years, working it off over there in Afghanistan, trying to forget the girl you've loved since you were ten. There's no way this is over. There is so much bitterness sitting in your heart you can't even see it. But maybe that's why God brought you back - for her. And to set you free from all that darkness.

...After hardship, God will bring ease.

Remember, too, that all who succeed in life get off to a bad start and pass through many heartbreaking struggles before they "arrive." The turning point in the lives of those who succeed usually comes at the moment of some crisis, through which they are introduced to their "other selves.

Sound advice comes from veterans of pain.

Good things can come from pain, he said. Not all of it is good, of course, but some of it. And the places it leads are good places, not bad. Never be afraid of the places pain will take you.

Every day was bad news and worse than the one before it, and that was all you could expect from life.

I don't consider myself a great actress. I'm just trying to stay alive, actually. I think I'm good, and I've learned a lot, certainly, mostly in the theater. I've been sloughed off movies for years. But what can you do? That's life.