More Passionate, More Responsible

 ...you were jarred into turning things around.  You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him.  The result was all gain, no loss.

Distress that drives us to God does that.  It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets.

And now, isn't it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God?  You're more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible.  Looked at from any angle, you've come out of this with purity of heart.

                                                                    -Second Corinthians 7:9-11, The Message

I've been reading through Second Corinthians over and over in the last month.  I'm probably going to go back to the beginning again when I'm through.  I just don't feel done with it yet.  Every pass, I see something differently, or something new.

And this passage- it's just true.