Writer Dorothy Sayers draws our attention to the reality of God's
intimate sharing in the pain of human existence. She observes:
For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is-limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death-He had the honesty and courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile.

Quoted from Christian Letters to a Post-Christian World, by Dorothy L. Sayers.
Used by permission of William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Lord,
How desperately I need to know that You are near.
I feel alone, and frightened, and far away from the warmth of Your presence.
Is it something I've done? Why can't I feel Your love?
Please be near me.
Open my eyes. Make my heart tender and receptive to Your presence.
Help me sense Your Spirit's breath as I read Your Word.
Help me see Your majesty and splendor as I look at Your handiwork.
Help me feel Your gentleness and compassion through the hands of Your people.
Forgive my doubts and fears and lead me through this barren place to the oasis of Your love.
Amen

We all rage at God, demanding that He do more than He is doing. He remains quietly unthreatened, saddened beyond words that we think Him cruel or
indifferent, but
unswervingly
committed to the
course He has set.
He refuses to redesign the plot of the book,
having already written
the last chapter
and knowing that
the ending is very,
very good, and that
every thread in our
story is necessary
to that conclusion.
Dr. Larry Crabb, Finding God

What I felt most
was a glob of unworthiness
that I could not tie down
to any concrete sin I was
guilty of. What I needed
more than pardon was
a sense that God accepted me, owned me, held me, affirmed me, and would never let go of me even if He was not too
much impressed
with what he had
on his hands.
Lewis Smedes

No one is wise enough to live alone, nor good enough nor strong enough. God has made us to a large degree dependent upon each other. From our brethren we can learn how to do things and sometimes also we can learn how not to do them. . . . Next to God Himself we need each other most. We are His sheep and it is our nature to live with the flock. And too, it might be well to remember that should we for a moment lose sight of the Shepherd we only have to go where His flock is to find Him again. The Shepherd always stays with His flock.

A.W. Tozer
Born After Midnight

"Even the best of people
leave much to be desired, and
we must not expect too much. We need to
be very patient with the faults of others.
The most perfect people in the world have many
imperfections, and so do we. And sometimes it is quite difficult for us to tolerate each other. We are to bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of
Christ" (Galatians 6:2), and I think this
means, among other things, that we
are to bear the burden
of each other's
imperfections."
Fenelon

Dear Lord,
I desperately long for the true peace
That comes from You alone.
I have had the peace the world offers
And it is not enough.
It disappears like the wind. It doesn't
satisfy my soul.
Give me Your wisdom to help me see
The things in my life that rob me
of Your peace.
Then give me Your strength to
triumph over them.
Please grant me Your peace,
dear Savior.
Amen

It is amazing how strong we can become when we begin to realize what weaklings we are. It is in weakness that we can admit our mistakes and correct ourselves by confessing them. It is in weakness that our minds are open to enlightenment from others. It is in weakness that we are authoritative in nothing and say the most clear-cut things with simplicity and consideration for others.
François FÉnelon

God chooses carefully those who would bring His message of hope, comfort and love to His suffering children. If you have been chosen to be God's hands, mouth or feet for your friend, God will bless you richly as you let Him teach you His gentle ways and how to walk in His strength.
Dave and Jan Dravecky
The Encouragement Bible

Grace has been called the glue that mends our brokenness," and in suffering, our brokenness is fully exposed. Grace, then, is indispensable in times of affliction. Grace says, "I love you, warts and all. I understand that pain has stripped away the veneer that covers your raw, unlovely humanity. But you also are made in God's image. You are, therefore, the most precious and priceless thing in all of His creation. So I will extend unwarranted love and kindness toward you because God has extended it to me.""

Oswald Chambers once wrote,
"Beware of harking back to what you once were when God wants you to be something you've never been." If we allow God to work through our losses, He will always teach us something that will bring us closer to Him and make us more like Him. And that is anything but loss."

We do not always have the freedom to choose the roles we must play in life, but we can choose how we are going to play the roles we have been given. . . . It is this power to choose that adds dignity to our humanity and gives us the ability to transcend our circumstances, thus releasing us from living as mere victims. The choices are never easy.
Gerald Sittser
A Grace Disguised

I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of sticks, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once. He mercifully unties the bundle, and give us first one stick, which we are to carry today, and then another, which we are to carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only take the burden appointed for each day; but we choose to increase our troubles by carrying yesterday's stick over again today, and adding tomorrow's burden to the load, before we are required to bear it. John Newton

Noise and words
and frenzied, hectic schedules
dull our senses, closing our ears
to His still, small voice and making us
numb to His touch.
-Chuck Swindoll

As children bring their broken toys
With tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams to Him
Because He was my Friend.
But then, instead of leaving Him
In peace to work alone,
I hung around and tried to help
With ways that were my own.
At last I snatched them back
  and cried,
“How can you be so slow?”
“My child,” He said, “what
  could I do . . .
You never did let go.”

-Source Unknown