Sin happens whenever we refuse to keep growing.

I think it's almost necessary for most people to have the freedom to pull back, and then re-enter at an adult level, where they are neither playing the victim nor creating victims, but just participating in calm, adult behavior. Because an awful lot of churches just aren't there at adult Christianity, this seems to be the norm anymore.

You come to God not by being strong, but by being weak; not by being right, but through your mistakes.

We all remain who we are. But on the way to healing or liberation we have to do what the Romans called agere contra: we have to act against the grain of our natural compulsions. This requires clear decisions. Because it does not happen by itself, it is in a way "unnatural" or "supernatural" . . . (we) simply have to cut loose now and then, and in the process . . . make mistakes.

God is always bigger than the boxes we build for God, so we should not waste too much time protecting the boxes.

Denial of our pattern of failure seems to be a kind of practical atheism or chosen ignorance among many believers and clergy.

All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain.