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

“Babylon makes two kinds of promises - maximum control and maximum freedom. With maximum control, I am in complete control of my destiny. I form my identity and justify my existence, needing noone else to define or shape my life. I belong to myself.

Maximum freedom is a newer development. In previous societies, people identified themselves as citizens and neighbours. But now, we are primarily consumers and spectators.”
― 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

“Jesus began his work with those who were supposed to be invisible at the party ... Jesus starts in hidden places with forgettable people, intentionally steering away from crowd-pleasers.”
― John Starke, The Secret Place of Thunder: Trading Our Need to Be Noticed for a Hidden Life with Christ