“For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,” – Philippians 1:29
“To love is to suffer…and that’s probably why we generally don’t do it well.” – C.S. Lewis
Alan Hirsch writes, “Unwillingness to venture, plus a desire to be safe, holds us back from love. To be sure, most of us do have a vision of what makes a good life, and as believers we know that it involves growing in the love of God. What we seem to lack, however, is the will to attain to this good life of love. Most of us prefer to skip over the pain and the discipline, to find some easy, off-the-shelf ways to sainthood. Christian self-help spiritualities are a classic dodge of the real issues and manifestly do not produce maturity.” – Hirsch, The Faith of Leap p. 89