What is faith? Faith is being grasped by the power of love.

Faith handles the ultimate incongruities of life, humor handles the more immediate ones.

When a man is drowning, it may be better for him to try to swim than to thrash around waiting for divine intervention.

Fear destroys intimacy. It distances us from each other; or makes us cling to each other, which is the death of freedom.... Only love can create intimacy, and freedom too, for when all hearts are one, nothing else has to be one--neither clothes nor age; neither sex nor sexual preference; race nor mind-set.

God knows it is emotionally satisfying to be righteous with that righteousness that nourishes itself on the blood of sinners. But God also knows that what is emotionally satisfying can be spiritually devastating.

I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.

The temptation to moralize is strong; it is emotionally satisfying to have enemies rather than problems, to seek out culprits rather than the flaws in the system.