“In the process of faith, doubts and crises must occur. Paul Tillich points out that only through crises can faith mature. Doubt eats away the old relationship with God, but only so that a new one may be born. The same thing is true of our human, interpersonal relationships…One thing is certain, that passage through the darkness of doubts and crises, however painful they may be, is essential to growth in the process of faith.” – John Powell, A Reason to Live! A Reason to Die!

“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The faultfinder will find faults even in paridise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.” –Charles A. Beard

“Do you know one of life’s greatest ways of making us grateful? Overcoming adversity. Grateful people often had a difficult childhood, suffered troubling losses, or had to compete against the odds. And they succeeded. But in doing so, they realized they could just as easily have failed. Although they worked hard, they know that “success” was a gift.” – Charlie Hedges, Getting the Right Things Right

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” – Helen Keller, her journal

“An Oak, which hung over the bank of a river, was blown down by a violent storm of wind, and as it was carried along by the stream, some of its boughs brushed against a Reed which grew near the shore. This struck the Oak with a thought of admiration, and he could not forbear asking the Reed how he came to stand so secure and unhurt, in a tempest which had been furious enough to tear up an Oak by the roots? Why, says the Reed, I secure myself by a conduct the reverse of yours: instead of being stubborn and stiff, and confiding in my strength, I yield and bend to the blast, and let it go over me, knowing how vain and fruitless it would be to resist.” – Aesop, Fables

“Hardened clay is brittle, easily damaged. If dropped, it can fracture into a thousand pieces. Dropped wax, however, only bends from the pressure of the fall. Impressionable and pliable, it can be quickly remolded. People are like that. People who are hardened in their resolve against God are brittle, their emotions are easily damaged. But those who bend to the will of God find perfect expression in however God molds them.” – Joni Eareckson Tada, Secret Strength

Handling Adversity