Morning Briefings

Dealing with the Places of Barrenness: Nouwen points out that ‘we live in a society in which loneliness has become one of the most painful human wounds.’

– Charles Ringma
Dare to Journey with Henri Nouwen

The pain is overwhelming, it over comes me everyday. I cannot work, I cannot function. MY LIFE, MY SPIRIT, MY SOUL HAVE ALL BE TAKEN AWAY FROM ME. I am suffering everyday – along with all those who love me. Every fiber of my being feels this pain, by mid day I’m saturated with it.

–
Tracy Goldbach

Former NFL star kills himself after lifetime of depression ‘brought on by concussion during career’ – the SECOND in a year.

–
Mail Online

Disease leaves you desperate for control at a time when you have virtually none. When you’re a patient, it doesn’t matter if you arrive in a chauffeur-driven limousine or on a public bus. It doesn’t matter if you are a CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a member of its cleaning staff. It doesn’t matter if you look as if you work out every day or if you haven’t seen the inside of a gym since high school. Stripped of our clothes and dressed in hospital gowns, we are all the same.

– Christine Schwab, Take Me Home From the Oscars

In what might be good news for coffee drinkers, a new study found that women who regularly consume caffeinated beverages are less likely to suffer depression.

– Jennifer Corbett Dooren
Coffee May Help Women Lower Depression Risk, The Wall Street Journal

The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It’s your mind you have to convince.

– Vince Lombardi
What It Takes to Be #1: Vince Lombardi on Leadership

Nothing goes to waste. God is the only one who can make beauty out of ashes.

– from the film
Standing Firm

I asked God if He was testing me–and once again I put my hands together to pray. Yet it was difficult to find my quiet place to talk with God while the devil was screaming in my ear.

– Immaculee Ilibagiza
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

And every tear that had to fall from my eyes. Everyday I wondered how I’d get through the night. Every change life has thrown me. I’m thankful, for every break in my heart. I’m grateful, for every scar. Some pages turned, some bridges burned, but there were lessons learned.

– Carrie Underwood
Lessons Learned

Your pain and suffering are real because they are yours. You must embrace them and realize that they, too, are a gift of life because they take you out of yourself and, for a moment, make you one with all others who have known loss or pain or suffering.

– Kent Nerburn
Letters to My Son: A Father’s Wisdom on Manhood, Life and Love