The shattering revelation of that moment was that true peace, the high and bidding peace that passeth all understanding, is not to be had in retreat from the battle, but only in the thick of the battle. To journey for the sake of our own lives is little by little to cease to live in any sense that really matters, even to ourselves, because it is only by journeying for the world’s sake - even when the world bores and sickens and scares you half to death - that little by little we start to come alive.

- Frederick Buechner, upon hearing bad news from a friend