Realistic hope permits a dying person to confront reality, but at the same time gives strength to go on living.

the parents of a severely disabled child have no end in sight.

In his list of fruits of the Spirit, Paul includes one that we translate with the archaic word "long-suffering." We would do well to revive that word, and concept, in its most literal form to apply to the problem of long-term pain.

Without you, without your onslaughts, without your uprootings of us, we should remain all our lives inert, stagnant, puerile, ignorant both of ourselves and of God. You who batter us and then dress our wounds, you who resist us and yield to us, you who wreck and build, you who shackle and liberate, the sap of our souls, the hand of God, the flesh of Christ: it is you, matter, that I bless.

You know, I was dealt a lot of bad hands.

What might God be trying to grow in your character or cement in your relationship with Him by keeping you separated from some of the things you want but don't yet have?

Fighting the low-level cloud cover that's blocking out what you're wanting to see break through into your life.

Many people seem to want this epitaph: "I led as painless a life as possible." But the purpose of life is not to avoid pain. That is the purpose of an animal's life—but animals cannot know happiness.

The choice is yours: do you want as pain-free a life as possible, or do you want as life-filled a life as possible? The two are mutually exclusive. "No pain, no gain" is not only true for developing a good body; it is equally true for developing a good life.

When Bad Things Happen to Good People and his lectures.

Everything that leads to happiness involves pain.

A life filled with tension can be a deeply happy one. A life filled with aggravation or stress cannot.