Great writers know what to cut out. It's the same in life. Clear ambitions. Clear relationships. This is the stuff of good story.

I think, in the grand epic, Jesus is the hero of our stories. And our stories, as they were, are subplots in a grand epic and our job is not to be the hero of any story. Our job is to be a saint in a story that he is telling.

All the trees are losing their leaves, and not one of them is worried.

Christ, in short, asks us to give everything, all our false redemption in the lifeboat, all our false ideas about who God is, all our trust in something other than God to redeem us. In so doing, we die to our broken natures in exchange for His perfect nature, and find unification with Him that will allow God to see us as one.

I'm just trying to make the point that the story we're telling ourselves is often very different from the story we're telling the people around us.

When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are. And when you stop expecting material possessions to complete you, you'd be surprised at how much pleasure you get in material possessions. And when you stop expecting God to end all your troubles, you'd be surprised how much you like spending time with God.

Flattery has a short battery life, but reminding people they are amazing and precious and wanted and works of art can truly change their lives.