"This is the work of the Christian, to say without equivocation, ' As the clay, I am the thing being shaped, and I certainly don't now more than the providential Potter.'....Certainly, we must wrestle our hearts into rest, but in continually wrestling without finally resting--and God will give you this option, waiting patiently by--we will ask why for our entire lives. In resting, we don't escape suffering, grief, or inconsolable things but we stand in a hope that a greater story is unfolding and, in seeing the story arc, we're able to see our own lives in sharper focus, through a lens of beauty" (92).
"The Spirit-led aren't trying to change the world so much as they are trying to allow God to change them in a way that spills over like a song into the world" (107).
"We must think in order to be thankful. And we must be thankful in order to experience joy. The greatest tragedies of our age are our constant motion, our overscheduled lives, and our obsessive attachment to our screens. We tend to believe we'll be robbed of happiness if we fail to match the world's pace step for step when in fact this pace robs us of the simplicity that displays beauty, which in turn leads to thanksgiving and, after thanksgiving, joy. If busyness mutes beauty, what mutes busyness? Beauty, of course. Paying attention to small gifts of everyday life helps us see and savor and, in turn, makes our distracted, numb hearts beat with thankfulness. Thankfulness will lead to joy, because when we're still, God himself will whisper it into our hearts" (171).
"God is not often found in our excessive busyness" (172).
"I read somewhere that when you do something that feels like worship, you've found your calling" (189).
"Although my life was characterized for years by self-condemnation and self-flagellation, I didn't realize how much I needed this grace. I didn't want to look at the reality of my life nor the reality of this world. It took me so long to see, and when I finally did, I saw darkness all around for perhaps the first time. This is, in fact, not morbid but rather a key component to understanding the gospel and, as a result, creating as a Christian. Our Christian kitsch betrays our preference for turning blind eyes to the reality of sin, darkness, and hopelessness in this world. We throw verses around like Band-Aids. We wrap up suffering in neat little bows as if the thirty minutes in the sitcom are almost up. We require that our songs consist of overtly Christian words and major cords. We have no patience for mystery, for nuance, for poignancy. We must not be afraid to look, really look, at the realities of life. We must not convey that the inconsolable things don't exist. We of all people should be able to do so, because we know the extent of grace, we know the power of the Holy Spirit to transform hearts, we know a hope that holds like an anchor" (193).
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