“God knows suffering, not because he created it, but because He experiences it with us. ... It is also true that although God knows suffering, He doesn't explain it. I waited and searched and beat myself up for that, and I know now that it just flat-out doesn't happen. God only walks us through it and out into a place where we can once again be free. He does this not because we believe some rigid this or that about Him. He does it because He believes in us. He doesn't ask us to go out into the world telling people why they suffer. Even if we knew why, it wouldn't hurt any less. What we need to know is how to help each other live with it, and live well.”

“Keep saying "Dear God, dear God". There may still be suffering - but keep touching those people, Lucia, and He won't let you suffer alone.”

“God doesn't take away the problem. He gives you a different solution, and that solution lies in the power only He can give you.”

“But supposing God became a man - suppose our human nature which can suffer and die was amalgamated with God's nature in one person - then that person could help us. He could surrender His will, and suffer and die, because He was man; and He could do it perfectly because He was God. You and I can go through this process only if God does it in us; but God can only do it if He becomes man. Our attempts at this dying will succeed only if we men share in God's dying, just as our thinking can succeed only because it is a drop out of the ocean of His intelligence: but we cannot share God's dying unless God dies; and He cannot die except by being a man. That is the sense in which He pays our debt, and suffers for us what He Himself need not suffer at all.”

“Just pray, Tristan,' I said. 'Pray that God will bridge the gap between what each of us has and what each of us needs to just be.”

“Go straight to God, and dump it right at His feet. You go down with it if you have to. Then leave it there and go on and do what you know is right now. That other is done. It doesn't make you who you are. It just teaches you who to be.”

“Frustration is the by-product of attempting to fulfill responsibilities God does not intend for us to carry. The truth is that God has promised to give us everything we need, and if He knows a husband would make it possible for us to bring greater glory to Him, then He will provide a husband.”