Reflections

We need to cultivate the courage to be uncomfortable and to teach the people around us how to accept discomfort as a part of growth.
~ Brené Brown, Professor/author/Speaker

Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words.
~ Roy T. Bennett, author, The Light in the Heart

The longer you look at Jesus, the more you will want to serve him in his world. That is, of course, if it’s the real Jesus you’re looking at. Plenty of people in the church and outside it have made up a ‘Jesus’ for themselves, and have found that this invented character makes few real demands on them. He makes them feel happy from time to time, but doesn’t challenge them, doesn’t suggest they get up and do something about the plight of the world. Which is, of course, what the real Jesus had an uncomfortable habit of doing. … The challenge remains the same [then as today]: to allow oneself to be grasped afresh, day by day, by the compelling love and radical agenda of the most extraordinary man who ever walked the earth, to be sustained by his powerful presence, guiding, confronting, warning, and consoling.
~ N.T. Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship

People are spiritual and in search of community, in search of belief, in search of belonging, in search of hope, and in search of vision. They’re not getting it, and so they’re looking for it in other places.
~ Simon Sinek, 1978-, author, inspirational speaker