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As he sat at the keyboard, Joey, a writer, felt like "someone was pushing pins in my wrists, dousing them with gasoline, and then whoosh, lighting the whole mess into a finger-burning wrist flambé." He searched for a cure for years, then turned to voice-activated software. "After talking like a robot into a computer for a year, I wore out my vocal cords." Depression followed for Joey, now a pastor at Coast Hills Community Church in San Clemente, California, who also directs the Grove Center of the Arts.

"Don't worry, God won't give you more than you can handle." How often do you hear that when you're going through a rough time? Really? Show me where that verse appears in the Bible. In this fallen world, God allows far more than we can handle to show us our true need for Him. Brokenness brings us to the end of ourselves. It brings us to our knees. It's the very thing we need to lead us to the wholeness found in Christ. God isn't an almighty Advil for pain and affliction. He offers us more than relief, rest, and restoration in the midst of our pain. He offers us His presence. As long as we're strong, independent, self-reliant, and self-sufficient, we'll continue to depend on our own devices, ingenuity, skill, resourcefulness, and spiritual entrepreneurship to work out our salvation. We'd rather save ourselves than appear weak and needy by depending on God. We give help. We don't ask for it.

Adapted from The Longing (Revell, 2004) by permission.

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me … so I can thank you.

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