We are tempted to live under the illusion that somewhere out there are people who are normal.

The reason our souls hunger so is that the life we could be living so far exceeds our strangest dreams.

Over and over in the Bible, it is fear that threatens to keep people from trusting and obeying God.

The most frequent promise in the Bible is ‘I will be with you.’

I'm more concerned about who you're becoming than what you're doing.

The soul seeks God with its whole being. Because it is desperate to be whole, the soul is God-smitten and God-crazy and God-obsessed. My mind may be obsessed with idols; my will may be enslaved to habits; my body may be consumed with appetites. But my soul will never find rest until it rests in God.

At the deepest level, pride is the choice to exclude both God and other people from their rightful place in our hearts. Jesus said the essence of the spiritual life is to love God and to love people. Pride destroys our capacity to love.