But grace can be the experience of a second wind, when even though what you want is clarity and resolution, what you get is stamina and poignancy and the strength to hang on.

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.

Dogs are the closest we come to knowing the divine love of God on this side of eternity.

... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66]

Sometimes I think that Jesus watches my neurotic struggles, and shakes his head and grips his forehead and starts tossing back mojitos.

Nothing heals us like letting people know our scariest parts: When people listen to you cry and lament, and look at you with love, it's like they are holding the baby of you.

Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.

I thought the secret of life was obvious: be here now, love as if your whole life depended on it, find your life's work, and try to get hold of a giant panda.

Human lives are hard, even those of health and privilege, and don't make much sense. This is the message of the Book of Job: Any snappy explanation of suffering you come up with will be horseshit.

there is only one way under high heaven to get the best of an argument - and that is to avoid it .

Don’t beg for treasure

Homeschooling is not a race ... You will not get behind, nor do you have to live with guilt that you feel the need to catch up.

The creations of a great writer are little more than the moods and passions of his own heart, given surnames and Christian names, and sent to walk the earth.

For me, the original play becomes an historical document: This is where I was when I wrote it, and I have to move on now to something else.

Talking, it seemed to me, was the point of adult existence.

A lot of the teachings really kind of keep me grounded.

To live is to choose.

There is no real happiness in having or getting, but only in giving.

I'm not scared to fail, I'm not scared to lose, I'm not scared to die, for that matter... It's going to work out the way it's supposed to work out.