Sufferings

苦難能把宗教真正的力量牽發出來，需要掙扎求存的條件越苛刻，無關重要的宗教枝葉就愈被剝落，真正的宗教核心就愈被顯露。

---from 楊牧谷 《從哀傷到歡呼 詩篇與人生》

We have often ignored the importance of sufferings in our faith. Maybe we should stop praying for God to remove/solve whatever problems we're facing, and face them head on.

This is the only way to get to the bottom of our true faith, so that Christianity stops merely being our religion.

I heard something profound in a sermon about Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane today. Prayer in the end is something you do alone. In that time of His sufferings, in spite of the presence of the disciples, Jesus was in that alone.