When I talk about losing myself, which I did, it’s losing my idea of who I was and my idea of what I was supposed to be doing and the idea of what my value was to God. I lost all of that at least.
BARBARA BROWN TAYLOR
BARBARA BROWN TAYLOR
Barbara Brown Taylor on losing
Barbara Brown Taylor78 quotes“When I talk about losing myself, which I did, it’s losing my idea of who I was and my idea of what I was supposed to be doing and the idea of what my value was to God. I lost all of that at least.”
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More from Barbara Brown Taylor
It’s difficult for me to ignore how many conflicts locally and worldwide have religion tagged to them.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor Divine reality is not way up in the sky somewhere; it is readily available in the encounters of everyday life, which make hash of my illusions that I can control the ways God comes to me.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor When someone asks us where we want to be in our lives, the last thing that occurs to us is to look down at our feet and say, ‘Here, I guess, since this is where I am.’
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor The only real difference between Anxiety and Excitement was my willingness to let go of Fear.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor Most of us spend so much time thinking about where we have been or where we are supposed to be going that we have a hard time recognizing where we actually are.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor I have learned to prize holy ignorance more highly than religious certainty and to seek companions who have arrived at the same place.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor Having been brought up with a definition of faith as adherence to a set of beliefs, I have more and more begun to turn instead toward a definition of faith as openness to truth, whatever truth may turn out to be.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor I think a toxic message in a lot of Christianity has been that the self has to be annihilated in order for God to be found. I think that has been a toxic message.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor I’m a follower of the Christ path, and that opens a huge discussion about what we even mean by words like “Christian.”
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor For a long time I listened to other people to decide whether I was still Christian or not, and I would sort of vet myself by the traditional formulae.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor I can’t help but note that God is being useful to a lot of people trying to do harm to one another.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor Most of us like thinking we are God’s only children…At least one of the purposes of church is to remind us that God has other children, easily as precious as we. Baptism and narcissism cancel each other out.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor The great thing about civility is that it does not require you to agree with or approve of anything. You don’t even have to love your neighbor to be civil. You just have to treat your neighbor the same way you would like your neighbor to treat your grandmother, or your child.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor Kindness is not a bad religion, no matter what name you use for God.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor I wanted to be as close as I could to the Really Real, and I’ll capitalize both of those R’s, because God is a word that means different things to different people, but we might all agree it’s what is most real.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor The boundaries became constrictive in what I was doing, and if my faith grew, it was because I pressed some of the boundaries in ways I hadn’t felt comfortable or responsible doing that before.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor
Original quotes
From our community writers
Since you are gone, I collect the stars each night building my own night sky, so I have something to hold onto forever.
Laura ChouetteLaura Chouette Can anybody hear me? Are my words going to waste I need to believe there was a purpose to all the pain?
Allie MillerAllie Miller The universe hears what you say, but it knows what you mean.
Brianna PastorBrianna Pastor Enough of this. The next one I love will return my passion.
Iestyn TudorIestyn Tudor It’s unconditional; their chemistry is unconditional – forever.
Ophelia ScarlettOphelia Scarlett I love you so much that it hurts and that’s the problem I love you so much that it hurts.
Olivia CliffordOlivia Clifford Let’s always bloom, savor and delight others with our beauty.
Mariya FedulovaMariya Fedulova Shadows follow me the way a vulture stalks death. One small step ahead.
Danielle MontgomeryDanielle Montgomery
Meet the writers
More on losing
Losing dad (Bobby Bonds) was the worst thing in the world.
Barry BondsBarry Bonds The dignity of truth is lost with much protesting.
Ben JonsonBen Jonson Keynes vs Hayek? Friedman vs Krugman? Those are the wrong intellectual debates. Its you vs. Tony Hayward, BP CEO, You vs. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs CEO. And you are losing…
Barry RitholtzBarry Ritholtz Nobody likes a child to die or losing an election.
Barbara BushBarbara Bush How pointless life could be, what a foolish business of inventing things to love, just so you could dread losing them.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver The tradition piece is so embedded in me I don’t know that I can see it any more, but the community piece is one I’ve been in danger of losing.
Barbara Brown TaylorBarbara Brown Taylor The things that stress me out haven’t changed. But I don’t wanna lose anything. So I thought that at least I would change. I’m lucky…that I’m afraid of losing something.
Ai YazawaAi Yazawa I was happy anywhere I could see the ocean.
Ai YazawaAi Yazawa