Luke

“Human experience inescapably involves suffering. For all of human history we have know this to be true. But it’s hard to recall this truth when we are surrounded by forces that promise us greater and greater explanations, control and strategies of happiness… beauty and love and joy are norma, but so is suffering.”
― Alan Noble, On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living, Library Edition

“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

“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

“Just like in our bodily resurrection in the end, what we offer the ground as a seed is our dead body, not the gloriously resurrected one. Take note: what we offer Christ is not a transformed life, but simple our life.”
― John Starke, The Secret Place of Thunder: Trading Our Need to Be Noticed for a Hidden Life with Christ