“Faith is not whittling God down to a size that I can comprehend. Rather, it’s whittling my need to control down to a size that God can intersect.”

“I have plenty of faith, but more often than not it’s faith in the belief that faith doesn’t work.”

“Brilliance without prayer is like a car with four flat tires. It might be a truly fine vehicle, but it isn’t going anywhere.”

“Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful.”

“When we look at stories of renaming in the Bible, we often find that a character is handed a new name they never asked for. While I’m sure Abraham treasured the new name and promise God gave him, and while Peter probably felt honored in the moment Jesus proclaimed him the bedrock of the church, not everybody comes by their new name so easily. Some people have to fight for it.”

“Don’t be afraid. Just believe.”

“There are two ways to interpret what Paul says in Galatians 3:28 about our being one in Christ: either it means that we’re all whitewashed and homogenized and our differences are erased… or it means that we’re called to find a way to make our different identities fit together, like the bright shards in assorted colors that make up the stained glass windows of a cathedral. Are we called to sameness, or are we called to oneness?”

“The menopause of Sarah became her menostart; this is feminine beauty! The death plot against Mordecai became his life spring; this is masculine beauty! A kind of life lived in God’s word is a life of miraculous beauty!”

“The Holy Scripture is a holy instruction of God.”

“What’s important is not the number, the crowd and even less what we do. But what’s important is who Jesus teaches us to be!”

“When our lives are difficult beyond description, we must remember that our God is good beyond explanation.”

“I need hope in something a lot bigger than me, for if I’m as good as it gets then I’m in big trouble.”

“If I have faith, what I see as a wall in front of me is in reality a door that will soon be behind me.”

“Despite how dark it might be, what is tonight but the precursor to tomorrow?”

“Not only is this not love; I think it is the most diabolical unfairness that was ever taught or devised.”