Tough shit, buddy. Your tough shit...

Misery colored by the greens and blues in my mother's voice took all of the grief out of the words and left me with a conviction that pain was not only endurable, it was sweet.

and suddenly there was Sweet Home rolling, rolling, rolling out before her eyes, and although there was not a leaf on that farm that did not make her want to scream, it rolled itself out before her in shameless beauty. It never looked as terrible as it was and it made her wonder if hell was a pretty place too

Before and since, all her effort was directed not on avoiding pain but on getting through it as quickly as possible.

When he was drifting, thinking only about the next meal and night's sleep, when everything was packed tight in his chest, he had no sense of failure, of things not working out. Anything that worked at all worked out.

But if you will keep your eyes focused on God's purpose for you, not your pain, God will use your trials for your good and His glory. He works all things together for good when you love Him and live according to your calling. No pain or experience is wasted when you are a child of the King.

As Romans 8:28 assures us, "We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.

Because nobody goes though life without a scar.

Conflict brings out the leader in us, transforms our lives from the mundane to the cosmic, and by God's grace forges us into more compassionate, selfless leaders.

Conflict in our stories isn't in the way; it is the way--to becoming better leaders, better image bearers, to creating a better story--to the fulfillment of the Story.

Our lives are best understood, and our sorrows are best borne, when they are recognized as "playing" within a drama that God himself entered, in the person of his Son, so that the human drama might become, through the redemption, a divine comedy, not a cosmic tragedy or absurdity.