“The God who empties us and strips away, however painfully, those precious things in which we are trusting knows what it is to be stripped of all His possessions, left alone and abandoned by His friends, and hung empty on a cross. Every tear of loss that God inflicts on us is a tear whose cost He Himself understands. The pain of God’s chastening work is therefore never harsh; it is never more than is absolutely necessary to turn us to Himself. It is measured and designed to show us the emptiness of the paths we have chosen for ourselves, so that we may return to His ways. What is more, when we do return to Him, we discover that it is His delight to fill the void we have created.” –p.138