The most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this: life is a story about me.
I believe the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man’s mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God. I was into habit.
Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.
They are lonely. I’m not talking about lonely for a lover or a friend. I mean lonely in the universal sense, lonely inside the understanding that we are tiny people on a tiny little earth suspended in an endless void that echoes past stars and stars of stars.
Sometimes the things we want most in life are the things that will kill us.
If you work hard, stay focused, and never give up, you will eventually get what you want in life.
The thing I loved about her was that I never felt like she was selling anything. She would talk to God as if she knew Him, as if she had talked to Him on the phone that day. She was never ashamed which is the thing with some Christians I had encountered.
Naked people look funny when they are for-real naked, outside-a-magazine naked.
I think the devil has tricked us into thinking so much of biblical theology is story fit for kids.
I listened so hard because it felt like, while she was telling me stories, she was massaging my soul, letting me know that I was not alone, that I will never have to be alone, that there are friends and family and churches and coffee shops. I was not going to be cast into space.
It is a pretty good idea to make some noises when you are at a play.
Of all the principles I’d learn about story, the idea that a character is what he does remains the hardest to actually live.
Reality is like fine wine: it does not appeal to children.
And once you know what it takes to live a better story, you don’t have a choice. Not living a better story would be like deciding to die, deciding to walk around numb until you die, and it’s not natural to want to die.
What I’m saying is I think life is staggering and we’re just used to it. We are all like spoiled children no longer impressed with the gifts we’re given – it’s just another sunset, just another rainstorm moving in over the mountain, just another child being born, just another funeral.
I have sometimes wondered if the greatest desire of man is to be known and loved anyway.
And so I have come to understand that strength, inner strength, comes from receiving love as much as it comes from giving it.
What I believe is not what I say I believe; what I believe is what I do.
I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the complexity of me.
You can’t tell a good story without conflict – the story can’t be beautiful or meaningful. We’re taught to run from conflict, and it’s robbing us of some really good stories.