We can’t expect the nation to operate by Christian principles… but we can expect this of the church.

If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way we want God to, and why I don't act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge.

The Christian knows to serve the weak not because they deserve it but because God extended his love to us when we deserved the opposite. Christ came down from heaven, and whenever his disciples entertained dreams of prestige and power he reminded them that the greatest is the one who serves. The ladder of power reaches up, the ladder of grace reaches down.

I have learned that faith means trusting in advance what will make sense only in reverse.

Prayer is a declaration of dependence upon God.

Prayer is the act of seeing reality from God's point of view.

Imperfection is the prerequisite for grace. Light only gets in through the cracks.