Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws but because we let go of seeking perfection and, instead, seek God, the one who is present in the tangledness of our lives.
Mike YaconelliChildren live in a world of dreams and imagination, a world of alivenessโฆ There is a voice of wonder and amazement inside all of us; but we grow to realize we can no longer hear it, and we live in silence. It isnโt that God stopped speaking; it is that our lives became louder.
Mike YaconelliIm unfinished. Im unfixed. And the reality is thats where God meets me is in the mess of my life, in the unfixedness, in the brokenness. I thought he did the opposite, he got rid of all that stuff. But if you read the Bible, if you look at it at all, constantly he was showing up in peoples lives at the worst possible time of their life.
Mike YaconelliJust because we believe the gospel is a life-and-death matter doesn't mean we have to act as if we're dead.
Mike YaconelliVoices surround us, always telling us to move faster. It may be our boss, our pastor, our parents, our wives, our husbands, our politicians, or, sadly, even ourselves. So we comply. We increase the speed. We live life in the fast lane because we have no slow lanes anymore. Every lane is fast, and the only comfort our culture can offer is more lanes and increased speed limits. The result? Too many of us are running as fast as we can, and an alarming number of us are running much faster than we can sustain.
Mike Yaconelli