Home > Work > Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
121 " Para nosotros es difícil admitir que tenemos una naturaleza pecaminosa porque vivimos en este sistema de chequeos y balanzas. Si somos atrapados, seremos castigados. Pero eso no nos hace gente buena, solo nos hace dóciles. "
― Donald Miller , Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
122 " I talk about love, forgiveness, social justice; I rage against American materialism in the name of altruism, but have I even controlled my own heart? The overwhelming majority of time I spend thinking about myself, pleasing myself, reassuring myself, and when I am done there is nothing to spare for the needy. "
123 " Six billion people live in this world, and I can only muster thoughts for one. Me. "
124 " I think our society puts too much pressure on romantic love, and that is why so many romances fail. Romance can’t possibly carry all that we want it to. "
125 " Por un momento, sentado con la ciudad bajo mis pies, me imaginé cómo sería la vida sin narcisismo. Me pregunté cuán hermoso sería considerar a los demás más importantes que yo mismo. Me imaginé la paz que experimentaría si dejara de ser acosado por esa voz pueril en mi interior que solo quiere placer y atención. Me pregunté cómo sería no vivir más en una casa de espejos, en la que me acuerdo de mí mismo dondequiera que vaya. Esa noche empezó a llover en el monte Tabor. Me monté a la moto, y manejar en la lluvia es algo que detesto porque las calles se ponen muy resbalosas. Llegué a casa empapado y con los nudillos blancos. Mi cuarto se sentía cálido y acogedor, como siempre lo es con sus paneles de madera y el abedul descollante fuera de la ventana. Me senté en la cama y miré mi árbol, que en el momento estaba recibiendo el aplauso de la lluvia. Esa noche no me sentí tanto como Napoleón. No me gustó recordar cuán absorto y concentrado estaba en mí mismo. Quería superar esa condición, dar el asunto por terminado. No quería vivir en un mundo "
126 " Many of our attempts to understand Christian faith have only cheapened it. I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the complexity of me. "
127 " When a person has no other persons he invents them because he was not designed to be alone, because it isn't good for a person to be alone. "
128 " At the end of the day, when I am lying in bed and I know the chances of any of our theology being exactly right are a million to one, I need to know that God has things figured out, that if my math is wrong we are still going to be okay. And wonder is that feeling we get when we let go of our silly answers, our mapped out rules that we want God to follow. I don’t think there is any better worship than wonder. "
129 " I was talking to a homeless man at the laundry mat recently, and he said that when we reduce Christian spirituality to math we defile the Holy. I thought that was very beautiful and comforting because I have never been good at math. "
130 " We learn that we are lovable or unlovable from other people... That is why God tells us so many times to love each other. "
131 " Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things. "
132 " G. K. Chesterton says chess players go crazy, not poets. I think he is right. "
133 " I think it is easier to do bad things than to do good things. And there is something in that basic fact, some little clue to the meaning of the universe. "
134 " We have to be taught to be good. It doesn't come natural. "
135 " I don't have to watch the evening news to see that the world is bad, I only have to look at myself. "
136 " I believed if word got out about grace, the whole church was going to turn into a brothel. "
137 " For so much of my life I had been defending Christianity because I thought to admit that we had done any wrong was to discredit the religious system as a whole, but it isn’t a religious system, it is people following Christ; and the important thing to do, the right thing to do, was to apologize for getting in the way of Jesus. "
138 " The problem with Christian belief–-I mean real christian belief, the belief that there is a God and a devil and a heaven and a hell--is that it is not a fashionable thing to believe. "
139 " I told her how frustrating it is to be a Christian in America, and how frustrated I am with not only the church's failures concerning human rights, but also my personal failure to contribute to the solution. "
140 " As silly as it sounds, I realized, late that night, that other people had feelings and fears and that my interactions with them actually meant something, that I could make them happy or sad in the way that I associated with them. Not only could I make them happy or sad, but I was responsible for the way I interacted with them. "