We are in constant danger of being not actors in the drama of our lives but reactors, to go where the world takes us, to drift with whatever current happens to be running the strongest.

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

The magic of words is that they have power to do more than convey meaning; not only do they have the power to make things clear, they make things happen.

I don't know that it makes any difference whether it's at this time or a hundred years before or a hundred years later. I think always it's a matter of simply listen[ing] to what is going on around you and in your own experience. Try to understand what's happening, or if not to understand it, at least to appreciate the reality of it.

The worst isn't the last thing about the world. It's the next to the last thing. The last thing is the best. It's the power from on high that comes down into the world, that wells up from the rock-bottom worst of the world like a hidden spring. Can you believe it? The last, best thing is the laughing deep in the hearts of the saints, sometimes our hearts even. Yes. You are terribly loved and forgiven. Yes. You are healed. All is well.

I don't know how to save my own life, so anything they've found in what I've written that saved theirs - I can't take responsibility for it.

If it seems a childish thing to do, do it in remembrance that you are a child.