“When Jesus’ presence seems absent in the midst of my panic, I find that canned spiritual answers and my usual spiritual disciplines, things that helped me feel connected, no longer work. . . . I find that instead of being still, I end up trying really freaking hard to be grateful and peaceful and patient. […]
“This is how I’ll finally arrive at that elusive place called acceptance — by watching for, noting, gathering instances of hope and joy in one hand, even while wrestling with my darkest hours in the other. This truth rings loudly in my heart: Good and bad can exist at once. It’s okay to admit that […]
“I think our former-glory or what-could-have-been laments . . . are an expression of looking backward — not so that we get stuck in the past or stumble over it, but as a way to surrender the past to God and begin living wholly in the new reality in front of us.”- Aubrey Sampson As […]
“And all of us, no matter what we face, want to know that we aren’t alone, that hope exists on the other side, that this isn’t all some arbitrary joke life has decided to play on us. Ultimately, we want to know that our time in this wilderness will transform into a blooming, healing, beautiful, […]
“Anger is a natural and common response to painful circumstances. . . . true lamenting calls for our lousiest, rawest emotions — even the ugly ones. But anger is usually a secondary emotion, often masking feelings of loneliness, insecurity, shame, abandonment, or sadness.”- Aubrey Sampson “Pay them back for what they deserve, LORD, for what […]
“God has waited patiently with me in the midst of my anger and questions, faithful and unchanging. He waits until I’m able to surface for air, waits to help me see glimpses of goodness.”- Aubrey Sampson “God does not punish those who remonstrate or rise up against him; rather, he gives sustenance to those who […]
“If you’re anything like me [hitting the wall] on the airplane, you might not want to become an object lesson anyway. I’m certainly not in the mood to learn a great moral of the story. I just want the pain and sadness to be shaken up and disappear to the bottom. I want to cling […]
“The only way to find yourself is in the fires of sorrow. Why it should be this way is immaterial. The fact is that it is true in the Scriptures and in human experience, You can always recognize who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, and you know that you […]
“When we watch little children run around the backyard, spotting fireflies for the first time, we remember, don’t we — that even in life’s complication, childhood wonder and abundance still exist. It just takes a bit of love to draw them out.”- Aubrey Sampson “God is too good to be unkind and too wise to […]
“The Christian gospel tells us more of the meaning of sin than suffering. . . . To the ‘why’ of suffering we get no firm answer. Of course, some suffering is easily seen to be the result of our sin: war, assault, poverty amidst plenty, the hurtful word. And maybe some is chastisement. But not […]
“On the other side of the Inward Journey, ‘we are on the way to more complete healing, which entails a deeper awareness of our weaknesses. We can hear, see, touch, and smell the God of our salvation. We are becoming intimate with God in the fullest sense of the word intimate.”- Aubrey Sampson, citing Janet […]
“What once was everything — our faith, our devotion to Jesus, our unwavering love for him — can sadly transform into a small, unrecognizable thing, a mound of dust and earth and mess and doubt and questions and frustrations. We might still pray and sing worship songs and have our ‘quiet times,’ but deep inside […]