“After a while, if you’re committed, you start to believe in the things in which you’re praying. It’s just cognitive dissonance. You can’t live a completely religious life and not start to have it sink in.”

The Bible talks a lot about thankfulness, and I’m more thankful than I ever was. I try to concentrate on the hundreds of things that go right in a day, instead of the three or four that go wrong.

I’d recommend learning to accept rejection. Become friends with rejection. Be nice to rejection, because it’s a huge part of being a writer, no matter where you are in your career.

I found there were things about religion that I really loved; things like the sense of gratefulness that it brings.

It’s hard to be in a bad mood when you’re walking around looking like you’re about to play the semifinals at Wimbledon.

Paintings! They’re like TV, but they don’t move.

In trying to avoid one sin I’ve committed another.

The key to making healthy decisions is to respect your future self. Honor him or her. Treat him or her like you would treat a friend or a loved one.

When I went to Israel, it was a little disorienting, because there are so many people who look crazy and were dressed like me. There, I was just one of the apocalyptic crowd.

When I was with the serpent-handlers in Tennessee, it was the most bizarre method of worship I could think of. Yet when you sit with these people, you can kind of see how it makes sense.

More people die on a per mile basis from drunk walking than from drunk driving.

I find placebos uplifting and exhilarating. It means that taking action–no matter what the action is–might help you feel better.

I thought religion would eventually wither away and we’d all be worshiping at the altar of science.

Its sort of my job to feel good.

I was very good at sitting. But I just read so much research about how horrible sitting is for you. It’s like, it’s really bad. It’s like Paula-Deen-glazed-bacon-doughnut bad. So I now move around as much as possible.

Probably 90 percent of our life decisions are powered by the twin engines of inertia and laziness.

Unconditional love is an illogical notion, but such a great and powerful one.

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.

Let’s not get too full of ourselves. Let’s leave space for God to come into the room.

There’s a battle going on inside you in Ramadan, and for 30 days Allah gives you the power to win.

I know all the books of the Bible.

My story: Salvation. My song; the same singing to Jesus, and blessing his name.

No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God in a human spirit

It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.

You never know God is all you need until God is all you have.