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" Jesus had a universal concern for those who suffered that transcended the rules of the ancient world. "

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" Amusement is a way of boredom-avoidance through external stimulation that fails to exercise our minds. It's mere diversion. "

" In the context of worship, amusement is a waste of time and a waste of life, and therefore a form of sin. "

" A bad sermon is like a car wreck - everyone slows down to see what happened. "

" Preaching a series allows you to go into greater depth in the text, and spending several weeks on one theme allows the teaching to be absorbed more thoroughly. "

" I hate how spiritual formation gets positioned as an optional pursuit for a small special interest group within the church. "

" I am struck by how quickly I am prone to judgmentalism. "

" I am a political junkie. During a presidential campaign, I will often buy a couple of newspapers a day just to keep up. "

" Jesus is why women have traveled continents, spent decades learning a strange language so they could translate the Gospel, planting churches, caring for the sick, educating the illiterate, and marching for the oppressed. "

" The hurried can become unhurried. But it will not happen by trying alone, nor will it happen instantly. You will have to enter a life of training. "

" As much as we complain about it, though, there's part of us that is drawn to a hurried life. It makes us feel important. It keeps the adrenaline pumping. It means I don't have to look too closely at my heart or life. It keeps us from feeling our loneliness. "

" Being deeply contented with God in my everyday life is a focused attitude. It is always available. It means practicing letting go of my obsession with how I'm doing. It means training myself to learn to actually be present with people, and seeking to love them. "

" Learning something new is a fabulous way to be refreshed. When work can grind you down, something about learning a new activity thrills the soul. It reminds you that the world is bigger than your desk and your to-do list. "

" Love of learning led to monasteries, which became the cradle of academic guilds. "

" God has decided, for his own good reasons, that people are not transformed outside of community. "

" When people feel they're getting to speak into what's being preached, there is high built-in motivation to participate. "

" The soul is both the most fragile and most resilient thing about you; a healthy soul is what holds you together when your world falls apart. Since you will carry your soul into eternity, it's worth checking up on it at least as often as your teeth. "

" Sometimes, an inability to believe in Satan reflects a larger inability to believe in a spiritual plane at all. "

" There are dozens of references to God in the Scriptures for every one to the figure of Satan. This reflects a sometimes forgotten theological truth that the devil is by no means God's counterpart. He is a creature, not the Creator. "

" When someone is in crisis, don't start by teaching, leveraging, or explaining. Just be with. "

" Congregations shaped by the Scriptures generally have preachers who are shaped by the Scriptures. "

" Skill at helping people grow spiritually, like skill at playing chess, depends on understanding and valuing differences. "

" I have always heard that you need to give yourself a long time to unplug when you do a sabbatical. I unplugged so fast I was a little concerned that I was losing brain capacity. "

" Prudence is not hesitation, procrastination, or moderation. It is not driving in the middle of the road. It is not the way of ambivalence, indecision, or safety. "

Procrastination

" Opposition is an inevitable reality of pastoral life. "

" I hate how hard spiritual transformation is and how long it takes. I hate thinking about how many people have gone to church for decades and remain joyless or judgmental or bitter or superior. "

" Women are the first witnesses to the resurrection and pillars of the early church. "

" It strikes me that presidential campaigns can often bring out the worst as well as the best in us. "

" There are no clear boundary lines between what is physiological, what is psychological, and what is spiritual. Those are language domains that make sense and have integrity but overlap significantly. "

" The church is in the hope business. "

" Authentic spiritual authority is what puts you in touch with reality. "