It takes a great deal of courage to follow another person's lead.

Church is what you do. Church is who you are. Church is the human outworking of the person of Jesus Christ. Let's not go to Church, let's be the Church.

If the request is wrong, God says, No. If the timing is wrong, God says, Slow. If you are wrong, God says, Grow. But if the request is right, the timing is right and you are right, God says, Go!

The local church is the hope of the world, and its future rests primarily in the hands of its leaders.

The heart and soul of the Christian life is learning to hear God's voice and then developing the courage to do what he asks us to do.

Storms draw something out of us that calm seas don't.

If you lower the ambient noise of your life and listen expectantly for those whispers of God, your ears will hear them. And when you follow their lead, your world will be rocked.

You have never looked in the eyes of someone who does not matter to God.

If you don't change your schedule, you'll be the same person you've always been.

You are the most difficult person you will ever lead.

The best gift you can give a human being is an introduction to a God who loves them.

the whole point of literature, I think, is that it’s the best technology we have for communicating what another person’s life feels like from the inside.

Love the people who treat you right pray or the people who don't

And I find - I'm 63, and my capacity to be by myself and just spend time by myself hasn't diminished any. That's the necessary part of being a writer, you better like being alone.

...because a life without meaning, without drive or focus, without dreams or goals, isn't a life worth living.

When I'm in a place like Iceland, I allow myself to take a little more time to divert off onto other paths creatively for a while and see what comes to me.

I still believe in the possibility of the United States, with all its will and all its strength, and I don't just mean military, persevering against any challenge. I still believe in that.

If you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all.

Youth had been a habit of hers for so long that she could not part with it.

Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world.

You get trapped by stories. Though I've got this reputation for being out of control, it's not true, it just happens to be a more interesting story than the truth.