GOD'S POWER MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS

'Where on earth does the glory of God dwell in power? It is in people that are needy and at their end - people that have given up on believing that they can be the hero of their story or that their dreams of a designer life will deliver. So God abides - his power to strengthen sits over, rests upon, and meets with people in the lowly place of acknowledged weakness and need.'

Ste Casey, I prayed and nothing changed: What God is up to in the silence, p.114.

STRENGTH IS SELF-HARM

'The wall of pretended strength that I build to conceal my weakness cuts me off from Christ and you.'

John Hindley, Weakness Our Strength, p.47.

THE WEAK CARING FOR THE WEAK

'In the church, we know that we should care for the weak, but so often we seek to do so as the strong, the capable ones, the copers, those who have their stuff sorted. Strong people care for weak ones, after all.

The Lord's way is different. It is to bring the weak ones together to care for one another. This is not nearly so attractive to us. For those of us who like to be dependable, it is challenging to think we might need to depend on others.'

John Hindley, Weakness Our Strength: Learning from Christ Crucified, p.39.

THE DANGER IN OUR VIRTUES

'When we're young, so much time is spent keeping our vices in check. Our anger, our envy, our pride. But when I look around, it seems to me that so many of our lives end up being hampered by a virtue instead. If you take a trait that by all appearances is a merit - a trait that is praised by pastors and poets, a trait that we have come to admire in our friends and hope to foster in our children - and you give it to some poor soul in abundance, it will almost certainly prove an obstacle to their happiness.'

Amor Towles, The Lincoln Highway, p.495.