. . .Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

Chase Replogle, Five Masculine Instincts

"In a world obsessed with self-esteem and self-expression, Christians embrace a unique form of self-suspicion…The first pain of maturity is the pain of recognizing your own inadequacy.”

* Pride shifts our focus from God and back on ourselves

* Pride feeds the lie that we are better than we really are

* Pride breeds an overconfidence that tempts us to trust God less

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

TIMOTHY DALRYMPLE, The Olympics Are About Failure

“I’ve asked numerous Olympic athletes about their experiences. One thing they agree on was that it was never really about the Olympic Games themselves. It was about the people they became in striving for excellence. It was, in large measure, about what failure made them.

Victory, when it came at all, was treacherous. It threatened to unmake what failure had made. Victory is more dangerous for the soul, defeat more instructive.

“In retrospect, I can see it. Failure—the failures I endured all along the way as well as the failure to make the Olympic team due to injury—has shaped me so profoundly that I hardly know who I would be apart from it. It showed me the end of myself. It taught me compassion. It showed me my many sins and flaws. It showed me my need for a strength beyond my own. It illuminated the grace of God.”