I will become discouraged and often I deeply lament of the fallenness that presses down in ever-darkening swells all around me. But I have learned that to be discouraged in the face of sin running rampant is simply my humanity finding itself vexed to exhaustion as I grapple with the wonder of ‘what could be’ as held against the depravity of ‘what is.’ Yet what I’ve learned is that discouragement is fortitude in the making, for God knows that to seize the vision of how good things can be we must first experience the wretchedness of how bad they can become. Only then will we understand the gravity of our mission and the power of goodness to achieve it.