During his recuperation, Jerry Gibree began a discipline of daily reading from The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers. An excerpt from the introductory prayer of the same name is one he returns to regularly—in it, he finds inspiration not to veer from a position of dependence on God:
Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
