Suffering causes us to scan our lives and face the fact that we control very little. So we mourn not only our suffering but also what it has forced us to admit about ourselves. Our loss of the illusion of control also adds to the fear that accompanies suffering.

death is literally all around us. We cannot run and we cannot hide and we have no ability to defeat it. Death lives at our address, and there is no escaping.

A warrior of the light...never confuses tension with anxiety.

Weeds choke the life out of anything good that might grow.

The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.

So Potiphar’s wife kept Joseph’s cloak beside her until his master came home.

After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted, thin and scorched by the east wind.

The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.

And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of them, chasing them from the gate as far as the quarries and striking them down on the slopes. So the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned down and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.

And David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of every man grieved for his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.

Then David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.”