Ethan Smith

“We tend to think that sorrow and despair are more authentic and real than celebration and joy. The last thing we want to be—or be seen as—is happy-clappy. … Joy is not ‘toxic positivity.’ It does not insist that we pretend things are better than they are. It does not refuse to face grief or sorrow. But it does say that they are not all there is and that they are not all that needs to be faced.”

Tish Harrison Warren, “How to Cultivate Joy Even When It Feels in Short Supply”

“It is more blessed to give than to receive—that’s true. But for needy adults, who in this respect are like sick infants, something of value must be received before anything of value can be given. Receiving always precedes giving. And that never changes. We never outgrow our need to receive. It’s a beautiful thing to witness the humility that receives.”

Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: God’s Unexpected Path to Joy

“Joy is always all-encompassing; there is nothing of us left over to hate with or to be afraid with, to feel guilty with or to be selfish about. Joy is where the whole being is pointed in one direction, and it is something that by its nature a man never hoards but always wants to share. The second thing is that joy is a mystery because it can happen anywhere, anytime, even under the most unpromising circumstances, even in the midst of suffering, with tears in its eyes. Even nailed to a tree.”

Frederick Buechner, The Hungering Dark

“God isn’t a sadist who delights in using agony to teach us a lesson. But in the alchemy of redemption, God can take what is only sorrow and transform it into the very path by which we learn to love God and let ourselves be loved. This is the strange (and usually unwanted) way of abundant life—the dying necessary to bring resurrection.”

Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night

“So if I stand, let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through.
And if I can’t, let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You.
And if I sing, let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs.
And if I weep, let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home.”

Rich Mullins, “If I Stand”

“The human soul under the disciplined regimen of God works like muscles do under the disciplined regimen of a trainer. The more the soul is worked and stretched to its limits, the more able it becomes to endure suffering and enjoy God all at once. When this happens in us, we become the best kind of dangerous. The more we get pushed, the more pushing we can do, and the more able we become to show up for others in their toil and tribulation.”

Scott Sauls, Beautiful People Don’t Just Happen

“Our pride drives us to establish our own righteousness. We strive all our life to see ourselves as keepers of rules we cannot keep, as loyal subjects of laws under which we can only be judged outlaws. Yet so deep is our need to derive our identity from our own self-respect … that we will spend a lifetime trying to do the impossible rather than, for even one carefree minute, consent to having it done for us by someone else.”

Robert Capon

“It is like this: the earth does not produce rain, nor is it able by its own power or work to get it. The earth simply receives it as a gift of God from above. It is the same with ‘passive’ righteousness. It is given to us by God without our deserving it or working for it. So let’s look at what the earth is able to do to get the rain each season so that it can be fruitful, and we will see how much we are able in our own strength and works to do to get heavenly and eternal righteousness. We see we will never be able to attain it unless God Himself, by the great gift of His Son, gives us Jesus’ perfect record, and gives us Jesus’ perfect righteousness.”

Martin Luther