It gets darker and darker, and then Jesus is born.” That line came back to me, from out of nowhere, and I decided to practice radical hope, hope in the face of not having a clue.

... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66]

It's good to do uncomfortable things. It's weight training for life.

Teenagers who do not go to church are adored by God, but they don't get to meet some of the people who love God back.

Certainty is missing the point entirely.

When we did art with the kids, the demons would lie down.

A good marriage is supposed to be one where each spouse secretly thinks he or she got the better deal.

Usually if you pray from the heart, you get an answer—the phone rings or the mail comes, and light gets in through the cracks, so you can see the next right thing to do. That’s all you need.

Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your hearts, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside.

Prayer usually means praise, or surrender, acknowledging that you have run out of bullets.

First find a path, and a little light to see by. Then push up your sleeves and start helping.

When life is not coming up rosesLook to the weedsand find the beauty hidden within them.

If you stand a Yard away from God Today, you will see your kids standing a Mile away from God Tomorrow.

In men whom men condemn as ill I find so much of goodness still In men whom men pronounce divine I find so much of sin and blot I do not dare to draw a line Between the two where God has not.

China has no income tax no unemployed and not a single soldier outside its own territory.

I didn't want to go out and change anything. I just wanted to make the music that was part of my background, which was rock and blues and hip-hop.

The way I grew up playing, and the way most Americans have grown up, is that you hit the ball up in the air and then it stops where it lands.

To engage people in culture we must remember that holiness is separation from sin, not separation from sinners.

I'd probably start charging for medical timeouts. I think we'd all see who really uses them and who doesn't.

The servant leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve.

We can't make a giant sprawling movie. We're going to make a small movie. And what we got is what I could get, performance-wise.