...It was those who looked to the person of Christ who were given the fortitude to withstand the physical and psychological pressures that were mercilessly meted out to them. And this is the great gift of the wounded heart of Christ to his friends, that they should be faithful through the storms of destruction that rage around them, that they should remain steadfast even though the tempests come and the blackest of black encompass them. ...

...."This is pretty radical trust. It means we agree to let God be God and not try to play God ourselves. This thought is crucial because basically there are two root sins we humans tend to commit. One is to make God out to be like us and two, to make ourselves out to be like God. As one biblical scholar put it, 'The core of sin is not our failure to adequately value ourselves but our refusals to adequately value God.'"...