Patches of Godlight

My dear friend Kelly recently lent me the book Patches of Godlight by Jan Karon.  It is a collection of favorite quotes from character Fr. Tim Kavanaugh.  Karon has based the Mitford series of books around this fictional priest. 
You all know I love quotes and even though I just started reading this little collection, I already have a few to share:

. . . to reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it--but we must sail, and not drift, nor be at anchor.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes

Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
--Leonard Cohen

The strain is the strength.  If there is no strain there is no strength.  Are you asking God to give you life and liberty and joy?  He cannot, unless you will accept the strain.  Immediately [if] you face the strain, you will get the strength.
--Oswald Chambers

Can you tell where my heart has been lately?  We all know people who face their own difficult strains daily.  Some are relatively new and some have been facing them for years.  Yours may not be as serious as you perceive another's to be, but we all have them. 
So, today, I just want to offer a bit of encouragement.  A bit of hope.  I lost track of how many times I heard or read "Do not be afraid" from different sources last week. 
The longer I am on this earth, the more deeply I believe He is near. 
He hears. 
He listens. 
He answers.
In His time.