Once an old woman at my church said the secret is that God loves us exactly the way we are and that he loves us too much to let us stay like this, and I'm just trying to trust that.

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.

Love truly is the strongest emotion. Find it, hold it and use it

Dare to climb higher heights.

You owe it to your loved ones as well as yourself to know and pursue your pleasures.

Look - every time is the wrong time and the perfect time to have a kid, and you just do it when you can.

Nobody knows what I am trying to do but I do and I know when I succeed.

Idolatry is still a socially cohesive force - its original function.

If you want to bring a fundamental change in people's belief and behavior...you need to create a community around them, where those new beliefs can be practiced and expressed and nurtured.

Sometimes I dress like what I want for lunch, because all I can think about is having a tuna sandwich.

Humans were denied the speech of animals. The only common ground of communication upon which dogs and men can get together is in fiction.

If you have grasped the purpose of life there is no point in trying to make life into something it is not or cannot be.