You know, there is always times where you feel discouraged and things coming against you, but I don't know if I ever wanted to throw in the towel.

To roam Giddily, and be everywhere but at home, Such freedom doth a banishment become.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

Even a broken tree can bear fruit

A tree will not wither and die because the wind blew away one leaf.

A tree dances for the wind not because it enjoys it, but because it doesn't want to break.

Great people aren't those who are happy at times of convienience and content, but of how they are in times of catastrophy and controversy.

I note that some whom I greatly love and esteem, who are, in my judgment, among the very choicest of God's people, nevertheless, travel most of the way to heaven by night.

You'll get through this. You fear you won't. We all do. We fear that the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the pain will never leave. Here in the pits, surrounded by steep walls and angry brothers, we wonder, Will this gray sky ever brighten? This load ever lighten? We feel stuck, trapped, locked in. Predestined for failure. Will we ever exit this pit?

You'll get through this. You fear you won't. We all do. We fear that the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the pain will never leave. Here in the pits, surrounded by steep walls and angry brothers, we wonder, Will this gray sky ever brighten? This load ever lighten? We feel stuck, trapped, locked in. Predestined for failure. Will we ever exit this pit? Yes! Deliverance is to the Bible what jazz music is to Mardi Gras: bold, brassy, and everywhere.

Anybody can preach a sermon on a mount surrounded by daisies. But only one with a gut full of faith can live a sermon on a mountain of pain.

Pits have no easy exits.