"The power of the Cross is not exemption from suffering but the very transformation of suffering. [...] 
God never denies us our heart's desire except to give us something better. [...]
With what misgivings we turn over our lives to God, imagining somehow that we are about to lose everything that matters. Our hesitancy is like that of a tiny shell on the seashore, afraid to give up the teaspoonful of water it holds lest there not be enough in the ocean to fill it again. Lose your life, said Jesus, and you will find it. Give up, and I will give you all. Can the shell imagine the depth and plentitude of the ocean? Can you and I fathom the riches, the fulness, of God's love?" 


- Elisabeth Elliot, Loneliness