discipleship

A good therapy helps you develop a sense of irony about your life so that when you start to repeat old and unhelpful patterns, something within you says, "There you go again; let's call this to a halt. You can do something different." Often the first step toward doing something different is developing the capacity to not act, to stay still and reflect.

The Book that made the nation was destroying the nation.

Weakness is not the problem, but my delusion of my strengths is.

We never move on from the cross. We only get a more profound understanding of the cross.

In brokenness comes beauty, divine fragility.

My own spirit, soul, and body are my nearest machinery for sacred service.

The author writes that key FDR aide Harry Hopkins was in such poor health near the end of his boss's second term that one observer said he didn't know how Hopkins could possibly report to the president. But, at the onset of war and genuine national emergency, Hopkins was animated with a new sense of purpose.

Something greater than me was happening. And yet, it was happening to me.

Prayer is the forerunner of mercy.

Regular, modest failures are actually essential to many forms of resilience.

Nietzsche tended to equate the memorable with the painful.

The author emphasizes the importance of self-forgetfulness when his statistics were marred by a bad outing. He forgot all of that outing to such an extent that he quipped, "What was my name?

Are you dedicated to your patient or your ego?

Even though every identity marker I have can be taken from me, the grace and peace of the Trinity overflows into the life of the believer.

Pat Conroy embraced his new hometown with the grateful passion of a refugee.

Alas! it is but little we have done for our Master's glory. Our winter has lasted all too long. We are as cold as ice when we should feel a summer's glow and bloom with sacred flowers.

When meeting criticism, he would regard it not as something to resent but as a thing to be examined, like an interesting beetle. "That's a curious view, not uninteresting.

The wings of the dove are as soft as they are swift. Gentleness is a sure result of the Sacred Dove's transforming power: hearts touched by His benign influence are meek and lowly henceforth and for ever.