Sometimes you have to go through the pain to get to the purpose, through the weeping to get to the joy, through the struggle to get to the promise. You keep being faithful and you’re going to see what God has been working on.
That is the only battle that Christ wants to win. He wins by including it all inside of his body, “groaning in one great act of giving birth … waiting until our bodies are fully set free” (Romans 8:22–23).
Jesus is, more than anything else, the God of all who suffer—more than any god that can be encompassed in a single religion. Jesus is in competition with no world religion, but only in nonstop competition with death, suffering, and the tragic sense of life itself (Romans 8:22–23)