The great wisdom traditions of the world all recognize that the main impediment to living a life of meaning is being self-absorbed.
Barbara Brown TaylorWhat I noticed at Grace-Calvary is the same thing I notice whenever people aim to solve their conflicts with one another by turning to the bible: defending the dried ink marks on the page becomes more vital than defending their neighbor. 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. In the words of Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas, 'People of the Book risk putting the book above people.
Barbara Brown TaylorYou can create an intimate community of about 20 or 25 people, and beyond that you're into a different kind of relationship.
Barbara Brown TaylorChurch can be extremely boring. It can be very meaningful, it can be character forming, but can be have very little fizz in it.
Barbara Brown TaylorThe hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self - to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it.
Barbara Brown Taylor