“Gratitude is the ability to experience life as a gift. It liberates us from the prison of self-preoccupation.”

The possibility of transformation is the essence of hope.

It may be a very bad thing that I needed God to die for me, but it is a wonderful thing that God thinks I am worth dying for.

Over time, grit is what separates fruitful lives from aimlessness.

God is not interested in our spiritual life. He’s interested in our life.

True repentance never leads to despair. Its leads home. It leads to grace.

As long as we have unsolved problems, unfulfilled desires, and a mustard seed of faith, we have all we need for a vibrant prayer life.

If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.

When we live in the love of God, we begin to pay attention to people the way God pays attention to us.

Joylessness may be the sin most readily tolerated by the church.

Your world could grow infinitely bigger if you were only willing to become appropriately small.

Jesus changed how the world thinks about science, medicine, human rights, education & more.

At the deepest level, pride is the choice to exclude both God and other people from their rightful place in our hearts. Jesus said the essence of the spiritual life is to love God and to love people. Pride destroys our capacity to love.

Death is the prerequisite to resurrection, the new life God intends.

You have a “turn” every time you have an opportunity to choose. But most of us only see a tiny fraction of the choices we have.

The reason our souls hunger so is that the life we could be living so far exceeds our strangest dreams.

Leadership is the art of disappointing people at a rate they can stand.

A thing said walks in immortality if it has been said well.

But a state or nation may kill as many as they please, and it is not murder.

Philosophers say man forms himself in dialogue.

You don’t want to drain yourself. But it pumps you up, gets you in the zone.

I’m more concerned about who you’re becoming than what you’re doing.

Maybe I could have been good as a drawer if I had done it as much as I did writing, but it’s more scary to draw. It’s more revealing. You can’t disguise yourself in drawing.

A pessimist and an optimist, so much the worse; so much the better.

Peace does not lie in getting God to give me other circumstances. Peace lies in finding God in these circumstances.