It's a terrible feeling being lonely.

Almost without exception the most beautiful, selfless people I've met are ones who've experienced personal tragedy.

The words alone, lonely, and loneliness are three of the most powerful words in the English language...those words say that we are human; they are like the words hunger and thirst. But they are not words about the body, they are words about the soul.

The great stories go to those who don't give in to fear.

After a tragedy, I think God gives us a period of numbing as a kind of grace. Perhaps he knows our small minds, given so easily to false hope, couldn't handle the full brunt of reality.

Can this person, product, or service help me survive?

Pain can serve a purpose if we cause it to. Again, while we do not have power over all that happens in the world, we do have power over our perspective. We can choose to take unfair and undue pain and cause it to serve our own story so that we become better. So that we transform.

The only two motivations a hero has in a story are to escape something bad or experience something good.

A person could read the Bible, not to become smart, but rather to feel that they are not alone, that somebody understands them and love them enough to speak to them, on purpose, in a way that makes a person feel human.

The most often repeated commandment in the Bible is "Do not fear." It's in there over two hundred times. That means a couple of things, if you think about it. It means we are going to be afraid, and it means we shouldn't let fear boss us around.

People will always choose a story that helps them survive and thrive.

Somebody may say, "But I may not be able to hold out." He is going to do that for you—He will hold you. His sheep are safe, my friend.