Amy Carmichael (1867–1951) was a missionary to India who suffered enormously in her life. She once wrote these words:

I have noticed that when one who has not suffered draws near to one in pain, there is rarely much power to help. I have wondered if it can be the same in the sphere of prayer. Does pain accepted and endured give some quality that would otherwise be lacking in prayer? What if every stroke ...

My friend and I sat on my patio, drinking tea and catching up with life. She had just moved to a new situation, away from familiar work, beautiful spaces and valued friends, and she was experiencing the exhausting emptiness of a job that was too full, a context where she felt undervalued, and a place where friends were not naturally found. The tears filled her eyes as she spoke of her weariness, her ...

I had accepted the call as senior pastor of a large congregation that had recently erected a huge, state-of-the-art building resulting in major debt. Feeling the pressures of my new responsibility—and with a strong desire to impress my parishioners—I hit the ground running. I was in the office early every day, and almost every evening I was out shepherding the flock or reaching out to ...

Rest and relaxation doesn't seem to come as easily or naturally to Americans as it does to those in other nations. According to the 2006 World Almanac and Book of Facts:

• a worker in Italy averages 42 vacation days per year.

• a worker in France: 37 days

• a worker in Germany: 35 days

• a worker in Brazil: 34 days

• a worker in the United Kingdom: 28 days

• a worker in ...

Rumored notes from hospital charts (probably written by some sleepy intern or frazzled nurse):

• The patient refused autopsy.

• Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.

• Note: Patient recovering from forehead cut. Patient became very angry when given an enema by mistake.

• Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.

• On the second day, ...

If you feel overloaded, you're not crazy. You're normal. But you may feel distracted, frustrated, or half sick, because the average office worker gets 220 messages a day—in e-mails, memos, phone calls, interruptions, and ads.

No wonder a survey of 1,313 managers on four continents found that "one-third of managers suffer from ill health as a direct consequence of stress associated with information ...

Our Lord came down from life to suffer death;
the Bread came down, to hunger;
the Way came down, on the way to weariness;
the Fount came down, to thirst.
—Augustine, Sermon 78

He so loved us that, for our sake, He was made man in time, although through him all times were made. He was made man, who made man. He was created of a mother whom he created. He was carried by hands that ...

A photographer was snapping pictures of first graders at an elementary school, making small talk to put his subjects at ease.

"What are you going to be when you grow up?" he asked one little girl.

"Tired," she said.

You can have it all. You can work harder, play harder, and multitask your way to squeezing 31 hours of activity into a 24-hour day. That's the finding of a study conducted by the American Management Association.

The study concluded that people can add almost 50 percent more activity to a typical day of 16 waking hours. Similarly, according to U.S. Labor Department figures, the average yearly increase ...

A few years ago, I received a phone call at my desk. A girl in the college department called to say that her car had broken down and she was stranded about two miles from the office. So, I drove over to the location and found her leaning against her car, looking flustered.

I leaned against the car next to her and asked what happened.

"Well, I was just driving down the road and it quit running," she ...