Following Jesus is not about diligently keeping a set of rules or conjuring up the moral fortitude to lead good lives. It's about loving God and enjoying Him

Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.

The world says love yourself, grab all you can, follow your heart. Jesus says deny yourself, grab your cross and follow me.

But God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through.

God has allowed hard things in your life so you can show the world that your God is great and that knowing Him brings peace and joy, even when life is hard.

God's definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love.

We never grow closer to God when we just live life. It takes deliberate pursuit and attentiveness.

Life is about Jesus. We are not here to tell our story, but His.

Don't fall into the trap of studying the Bible without doing what it says.

The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him most of the time.

He wants all or nothing. The thought of a person calling himself a 'Christian' without being a devoted follower of Christ is absurd.

Until you have stood in another woman’s stilettos, you will never begin to know the year of pain she felt breaking them in.

I will buy six pieces or so a day and just snack on them. Sometimes I wrap them up in my mini seaweed sheets.

There is nothing greater than the joy of composing something oneself and then listening to it.

I try not to define myself. Other people are going to do that for you anyway.

Art is the opposite of chaos. Art is organized chaos.

I take a lot of pride in being myself. I'm comfortable with who I am.

I think it's a very bad idea for someone to start writing for a readership.

To err is human, to forgive is interplanetary.

I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.

I think the University of Texas has the chance to become the finest public university in the country.