Reflections

You cannot love a fellow creature fully, till you love God.
~ C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

We get trapped in our own little bubbles, and even though the world is a wide and mysterious place, our bubbles keep us safe from that. To our detriment…. When we’re shaken from that, when that bubble bursts, it can be hard to understand all that we’ve missed. We might even fear it. Some of us even fight to try and get it back.
~ T.J. Klune, Author, The House in the Cerulean Sea

Ideally the church itself is not made up of natural “friends.” It is made up of natural enemies. What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything of the sort. Christians come together, not because they form a natural collocation, but because they have been saved by Jesus Christ and owe him a common allegiance. In the light of this common allegiance, in light of the fact that they have all been loved by Jesus himself, they commit themselves to doing what he says—and he commands them to love one another. In this light, they are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake.
~ D. A. Carson, Professor of New Testament, Trinity Divinity

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

Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about ‘man’s search for God.’ To me, they might as well have talked about the mouse’s search for the cat. I thought I was searching, but when I look back, I realize I was searching because he was first searching for me.
~ C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

Reflections

Faith isn’t about believing in things you regard as ridiculous, a sacrifice of intellect, it’s a decision; will truth, beauty and love save the world.
~ Jordan Peterson, Psychologist, Author, Speaker

The world does not consist of 100 percent Christians and 100 percent non-Christians. There are people (a great many of them) who are slowly ceasing to be Christians but who still call themselves by that name. (And some of them are clergymen.) There are other people who are slowly becoming Christians though they do not yet call themselves so.
~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Conversion for me was not a Damascus Road experience. I slowly moved into an intellectual acceptance of what my intuition had always known.
~ Madeleine L’Engle, Author, 1918-2007

When one of my friends becomes a Christian, which happens about every 10 years because I am a sheep about sharing my faith, the experience is euphoric. I see in their eyes the trueness of the story.
~ Donald Miller, Author, 1971—

The basic dynamics of conversion are summed up for me in the words LEAVE-ARRIVE, END-BEGIN, SHED-EMERGE. These are the tensions of conversion and spiritual awakening.
~ Sue Monk Kidd, 1948—, God’s Joyful Surprise