“Outside of the Lord, life is a very treacherous ordeal. Proverbs teaches this when its author Solomon writes: ‘the way of the unfaithful is hard’ (Prov. 13:15). Of course Christian life is hard too, but it is hard in another way, in a way that is at least bearable and purposeful. Christians can lay hold of the meaning and purpose and grace of suffering and truly believe that all things, even the evil ones, ‘work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.’ (Rom. 8:28). A life outside of Christ is both hard and frightening; a life in Christ has hard edges and dark valleys, but it is purposeful even when painful.”

-Rosaria Champagne Butterfield in The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert