The great wisdom traditions of the world all recognize that the main impediment to living a life of meaning is being self-absorbed.

I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light.

I didn't want to be a priest. I wanted to do the work that priests do, and that required becoming a priest.

I went to the little church in the country after ten years in the city. And part of my dream was to sit on people's front porches with glasses of iced tea, and all that happened. I was able to send birthday cards to everyone in the parish and able to know everyone who was there on Sunday by name. And that was what I'd been looking for.

To be fully human is perhaps why I'm Christian, because I see in the life of Jesus a way of being fully human.

I began to get notes from people saying they were sorry to hear I'd left ministry. And for a while, I halfway believed they were right, that I'd left.

As a general rule, I would say that human beings never behave more badly toward one another than when they believe they are protecting God.