Luke

“But we don't get a harvest of joy without the sowing of tears. If we merely try to "keep it light", escaping or numbing our pain, or just gritting our teeth and bearing it, we will miss the harvest. Our tears are seeds ... God won't simple replace our tears with joy. Our tears, themselves, become a path to joy.”
― John Starke, The Secret Place of Thunder: Trading Our Need to Be Noticed for a Hidden Life with Christ

“While we crave the "I want your life" comments on Instagram, what we need is the Father's consistent voice telling us "you are my beloved. Well done. I love you." The affirmation of the world is a moving target, leaving us perpetually anxious and cultivating our insecurities, but the Father's voice of love is stable and firm, forming us into resilient people.”
― John Starke, The Secret Place of Thunder: Trading Our Need to Be Noticed for a Hidden Life with Christ

“Strange gods don't take the same form nowadays as temples, icons and sacrifices, but they stick to the same scheme of manipulating the desires and cravings of our hearts. They seem trustworthy and reasonable ... we grasp for paths and promises that desensitize us to his love, but if we will come in an undefended state ("open wide your mouths"), he will fill us.”
― John Starke, The Secret Place of Thunder: Trading Our Need to Be Noticed for a Hidden Life with Christ

“The Judge of all has declared his creation - of which you are no small part … - to be good.There is no countermanding that declaration … When we choose to affirm what God has done in creating us, what God I’d already doing in granting us breath and in preserving His world and us in it, we worship Him.”
― Alan Noble, On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living, Library Edition