Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle.
So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
People think of Heaven as a paradise garden, a place where they can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains. But scenery without solace is meaningless.
Everyone knows they're going to die, but nobody believes it.
I traded lots of dreams for a bigger paycheck, and I never even realized I was doing it.
Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe.
Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.
There is a reason God limits our days.” “Why?” “To make each one precious.
All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped.
We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.
Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside.
You have peace when you make it with yourself.
Sacrifice, you made one. I made one. We all make them. But you are angry over yours. You kept thinking about what you lost… You didn’t get it. Sacrifice is a part of life.
Time is not what you think. Dying? Not the end of everything. We think it is. But what happens on Earth is only the beginning.
No life is a waste. The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone.
This is the greatest gift God can give you: to understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is the peace you have been searching for.
Now that I'm suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer than I ever did before.
The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We're teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own. Most people can't do it.
Love wins. Love always wins.
He would not wither. He would not be ashamed of dying. Instead, he would make death his final project, the center point of his days.