"Adversity introduces a man to himself. - Anonymous

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death." - Thomas Paine, 1776

"God is always testing us, and his testing does not come when we are warned and ready. Anyone can pass a test then…
God's tests catch us unprepared, off-guard. It is when we are confronted with some simple situation no one will know about that the tests of life really come. When you are relaxing at home and the phone rings and suddenly you are confronted with a call for help, or a demand for a response - and you had planned to relax and enjoy yourself all afternoon - what happens then? That's the test." - Ray C. Stedman in Man of Faith

"One reason God created time was so there would be a place to bury the failures of the past." - James Long

"If I have learned anything, I owe it neither to precepts nor to books, but to a few opportune misfortunes. Perhaps the school of misfortune is the very best." - Louise Honorine De Choiseul (1734-1801)

"Many people quench the Spirit by being down in the mouth rather than rejoicing, by planning rather than praying, by murmuring rather than giving thanks, and by worrying instead of trusting in him who is faithful." - Cameron Townsend, founder of Wycliff Bible Translators

"Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties." - C. H. Spurgeon, quoted in Streams in the Desert

"The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking as when we created them." - Albert Einstein

"If you do not wish to be full of regrets when you are forced to lie still, work while you can. If you desire to make a sickbed as soft as it can be, do not stuff it with mournful reflections that you wasted time when you were in health and strength." - Charles Spurgeon (quoted in Pulse, Feb. 21, 1997, page 5)

"While expounding on the value of suffering, a saintly old preacher extended his long finger toward the congregation and thundered, 'Brother, if God sends you tribulation, He expects you to tribulate!'" - Sam Cathey, Amarillo Bible Conference

"[Rabbi Harold] Kushner's book [When Bad Things Happen to Good People] was a best seller not only because it is so well written, but also because it caters to a narcissistic age. For us, any suffering, confusion or tragedy is intently unfair and undeserved because we stopped trusting a God whose presence makes suffering, confusion and tragedy bearable." - William H. Willimon in the 'Christian Century' (Feb. 22, 1989), Christianity Today, Vol. 34, #9.

"God created man something on the order of a rubber band. A rubber band is made to stretch. When it is not being stretched, it is small and relaxed, but as long as it remains iin that shape, it is not doing what it was made to do. When it stretches, it is enlarged; it becomes tense and dynamic, and it does what it was made to do. God created you to stretch." - Charles Paul Conn in 'Making It Happen', Christianity Today, Vol. 35, #1.

"No trouble seems pleasant at the time. Yet in God's economy, it is this pain which brings forth new faith. How often we hear, 'I thank God for that hard time; it was the best thing that every happened to me.' Even when we may not find the grace to thank God for our tribulation, we can thank Him for the good that comes from our fire." - Virginia Law Shell in 'Good News', (Nov.-Dec. 1990), Christianity Today, Vol. 35, #11.

"We grow and mature spiritually through adversity - not when everything is going smoothly…in a time of adversity of trouble, the Christian has the opportunity to know God in a special and personal way." - C. Everett Koop

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." - Helen Keller in The Faith of Helen Keller

"God loves us in good times and bad… but he is even more real in our lives when we are having tough times." - Joe Gibbs, former head coach of the Washington Redskins

Adversity