the greatest cause of suffering

To embrace God is to allow his desires to rule in our hearts. To know God is to share his joy and therefore also his grief. If any person is to love God, he or she must be prepared to grieve over the things that grieve God. To come to God is to have our hearts broken by God’s sadness, not only for the world he loves but also for us. To be embraced by God is to be shattered by the revelation of all that grieves God in our lives. It is to be devastated by the reality that we are the cause of the greatest suffering in the universe: the suffering of God.

Matthew Jacoby, Deeper Places, page 40.