“Pastoral work in suffering is like a Jacobean wrestling with the angel at Peniel: ‘I will not let you go till you tell me your name.’ Pastors grapple with the dark assailants and demand they cough up their meaning. In the dawn, although Jacob walks with a limp, he walks with purpose, with meaning, with integrity. A wounded healer. The night at Peniel held despair before God and confidence in God in a tight embrace. With the morning there came a blessing.”
(Eugene Peterson, in Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work, 111)
