"...Yet in His turning away was not rejection but an invitation to follow Him to a place where I did not want to go. And that place was down a deep well to experience my sinfulness, brokenness and powerlessness in a way I had never known before....The compassion of Jesus enabled me to be compassionate toward myself...In the mystery of divine wholeness, the way of compassionate caring for others brings healing to ourselves, and compassionate caring for ourselves brings healing to others."
-Brennan Manning, "The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus"



"then the lion said...you will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you but I was pretty nearly desperate now so I just lay flat down on my back and I let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep I thought it had gone right into my heart. When he began pulling the skin off it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt the only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peal off. Well he pulled the beastly stuff right off just as I thought I'd done to myself the other three times only they hadn't hurt. And there it was lying on the grass only ever so much thicker and darker and more nobbley looking then the others had been. And there was I smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. And he caught hold of me, I didn't like that very much, it was very tender underneath now that I had no skin on. And he threw me into the water. It smarted like anything, but only for a moment. And after that it became perfectly delicious."

-CS Lewis, "Voyage of the Dawn Treader"