The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

Just in case you don’t recognize it, the quote above is from Princess Leia in Star Wars.

The title – that’s from me.

Now it may surprise you to learn that in His efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favourites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else.

And that line is from C. S. Lewis, in the Screwtape Letters.  If you’re not familiar with it, it’s Screwtape (a devil) talking to his nephew (a devil in training) about how God uses the low points in people’s lives.  And how God’s special people seem to go through longer and deeper troughs than most.

Suffering for Being a Christian

1Pe 4:12 Dear friends, do not be…