62 quotes
The problem with Christian belief--I mean real Christian belief, the belief that there is a God and a devil and a heaven and a hell--is that it is not a fashionable thing to believe.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
I had the image of a spiritual person, but I was bowing down to the idols of religiosity and philosophy.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
And that's when I realized that believing in God is as much like falling in love as it is like making a decision. Love is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
No poet, in his greatest imaginings, could conceive of anything greater than the real
Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000)
"I don't mean any disrespect. I truly don't. But Texas isn't nature. Texas is city and smog and humidity and heat."
Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000)
It occurs to me it is not so much the aim of the devil to lure me with evil as it is to preoccupy me with the meaningless.
Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000)
When we ask ourselves if we are walking with Christ, I believe we need to ask oursleves this question: Has Christ changed the way I view the world lately?
Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000)
The early bird catches the worm But I have never been one for worms. I am not sure what the late bird catches, but I will feast with him today. Probably porridge.
Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000)
Angry people are stupid people.
Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000)
Even our beliefs have become trend statements. We don't even believe things because we believe them anymore. We only believe things because they are cool things to believe.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
"But I think that God does not so much take us from point A to point B in the physical world as He takes us from not knowing Him to knowing Him."
Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000)
I have come to understand that strength, inner strength, comes from receiving love as much as it comes from giving it...God's love will never change us if we don't accept it.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
It gives me great confidence and pride to think that, had the Israelites been influenced by German engineering, Paul and Timothy might have journeyed in an old Volkswagen camping van.
Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000)
Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
I went there to try to get my head around this idea, this idea that the problem in the universe lives within me. I can't think of anything more progressive than the embrace of this fundamental idea.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
I realized in and instant that I desired false gods because Jesus wouldn't jump through my hoops, and I realized that, like Tony, my faith was about image and ego, not about practicing spirituality.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
Jesus does not want us floating through space or sitting in front of our televisions. Jesus wants us interacting, eating together, laughing together, praying together. Loneliness is something that came with the fall.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
Early on, I made the mistake of wanting spiritual feelings to endure and remain romantic. Like a new couple expecting to always feel in love, I operated my faith thinking God and I were going to walk around smelling flowers. When this didn't happen, I became confused.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
It is the process that is godliness, not so much the end result. A godly man will involve himself in the process of being godly. For godliness is not so much a place we are going as it is the going itself.
Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000)
Here's what I've started thinking: All the wonder of God happens right above our arithmetic and formula. The more I climb outside my pat answers, the more invigorating the view, the more my heart enters into worship.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)