Flattery has a short battery life, but reminding people they are amazing and precious and wanted and works of art can truly change their lives.
I used love like money, but love doesn’t work like money. It is not a commodity. When we barter with it, we all lose. When the church does not love it’s enemies, it fuels their rage. It makes them hate us more.
I think understanding your life as a story is a really terrific way of kind of knowing where you are and knowing who you are.
I’m not a pastor; I’ve never been on staff at a church.
People are lonely. They want company and your book can provide them company and a little bit of hope. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
We believe we will be made whole by our accomplishments, our possessions, or our social status. It’s written in the fabric of our DNA that life used to be beautiful and now it isn’t, and if only this and only that, it would be beautiful again.
Other people keep our souls alive, just like food and water does with our body.
I used to write when I was in the mood or felt inspired. Anymore, I write whether I feel inspired or not. It’s a discipline. So that’s definitely different. It’s part of maturing as a person and as a professional.
Without a positive male role model in your life, it is extremely difficult to become a man who benefits his family and benefits society.
The reason I like writing a memoir is because it isn’t preachy.
I had always suspected language was quite limited in its ability to communicate the intricate mysteries of truth.
One of the things I associate with God is a sunrise. How many sunrises have you missed over the years, and God created that?
Meaning is something we experience more than we attain. It’s like finding a nice, easy current in a river that carries you through life.
It made me wonder if the reasons our lives seem so muddled is because we keep walking into scenes in which we, along with the people around us, have no clear idea what we want.
It confuses me that Christian living is not simpler. The gospel, the very good news, is simple.
Humans are designed to seek comfort and order, and so if they have comfort and order, they tend to plant themselves, even if their comfort isn’t all that comfortable. And even if they secretly want for something better.
If you have a beautiful story, it has to have conflict. If you don’t have conflict, it can’t be a good story.
The economy is turning around, so that’s going to help a little bit.
There’s a lot of letters, and a lot of people come say “hi” at book signings, but I’m amazed at how normal everybody is.
The sexual conquest is huge with men in terms of affirming themselves and their feelings of masculinity. That’s a misguided kind of affirmation. That is not helpful, but that stuff happens.