My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a b

Maturity' really means: being very unsurprised by, and calm around, pain and disappointment.

But wherefore thou alone wherefore with thee came not all hell broke loose Is pain to them less pain, less to be fled, or thou than they less hardy to endure courageous chief, The first in flight from pain, hadst thou alleged to thy deserted host this cause of flight, Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive.

What does not destroy me makes me strong.

The evil and suffering in this world are greater than any of us can comprehend. But evil and suffering are not ultimate. God is. Satan, the great lover of evil and suffering, is not sovereign. God is.

A thousand sorrows prepares a man to preach.

In other words, physical evil is a parable, a drama, a signpost pointing to the moral outrage of rebellion against God.

The Christian who loves his heavenly Father may not discern by outward providences or visible signs any heavenly favor above that given those with little or no consecration. Often he is sorely afflicted, distressed, perplexed, and hedged in on every side. Appearances seem to be against him.

Job was stripped of his earthly treasures, bereaved of his children, and made a spectacle of loathing to his friends, but in God's time He showed He had not forsaken His servant.

Lord! Lord! thar's such a sight of meanness in this here world that it makes a body b'lieve in Providence whether or no.

when she was pregnant, so Nan was born in a workhouse. She never talked about it, but it seemed to have left her as someone nothing could faze,

if God is all-powerful and God is all-good, then why do terrible things happen to good people?