You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.
TUTU DESMONDOut of the cacophony of random suffering and chaos that can mark human life, the life artist sees or creates a symphony of meaning and order.
More Tutu Desmond Quotes
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Life is more than breath and a heartbeat; meaning and purpose are the life of life.
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Discovering more joy does not, save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak.
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When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.
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Our maturity will be judged by how well we are able to agree to disagree and yet continue to love one another, to care for one another, and cherish one another and seek the greater good of the other.
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We do not heal in isolation. When we reach out and connect with one another—when we tell the story, name the hurt, grant forgiveness, and renew or release the relationship—our suffering begins to transform.
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There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream to find out why they’re falling in.
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Forgiveness does not relieve someone of responsibility for what they have done. Forgiveness does not erase accountability. It is not about turning a blind eye or even turning the other cheek.
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When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others.
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Transformation begins in you, wherever you are, whatever has happened, however you are suffering. Transformation is always possible.
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Forgiveness is truly the grace by which we enable another person to get up, and get up with dignity, to begin anew.
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I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.
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Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring.
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If you are setting out to be joyful you are not going to end up being joyful. You’re going to find yourself turned in on yourself. It’s like a flower. You open, you blossom, really because of other people.
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You show your humanity by how you see yourself not as apart from others but from your connection to others.
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If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible. There’s nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible.
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We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreaks without being broken.
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In the end generosity is the best way of becoming more, more, and more joyful.
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Life of wholeness does not depend on what we experience. Wholeness depends on how we experience our lives
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Dear Child of God, I am sorry to say that suffering is not optional.
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We must be ready to learn from one another, not claiming that we alone possess all truth and that somehow we have a corner on God.
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There is nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep.
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Out of the cacophony of random suffering and chaos that can mark human life, the life artist sees or creates a symphony of meaning and order.
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We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.
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In the end what matters is not how good we are but how good God is. Not how much we love Him but how much He loves us. And God loves us whoever we are, whatever we’ve done or failed to do, whatever we believe or can’t.
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We are not responsible for what breaks us, but we can be responsible for what puts us back together again. Naming the hurt is how we begin to repair our broken parts.
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Like when you sit in front of a fire in winter — you are just there in front of the fire. You don’t have to be smart or anything. The fire warms you.
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