Quotes from Peter Scazzero

parece que hace falta una crisis de extremo quebranto para hacer que cambien otros de nosotros que hemos estado en la iglesia durante mucho tiempo.

You would think the church and its leaders would be all for healthy leadership and whatever it takes to achieve it. But the truth is that there are parts of church leadership culture that actually work hard against it.

are deeply loved by God for who we are, not for what we do.

Most Christians are not intentional, but rather functional, like cars on autopilot. Our crammed schedules, endless to-do lists, demanding jobs and families, constant noise, information bombardment, and anxieties keep us speeding up, not slowing down.

While I was disciplined in spiritual practices, the people closest to me (starting with my wife, Geri) did not experience me as more loving with each passing year.

Gregory of Nazianus taught around AD 370: "The responsibility of pastoral office is great indeed, and no one ought to enter who has not deeply examined motive and ability, who has not struggled against call in the face of godly demands of office and the frailty of mere humanity.

be still, and know that [he is] God" (Psalm 46:10)

Your being with God (or lack of being with God) will trump, eventually, your doing for God every time. We cannot give what we do not possess. We cannot help but give what we do possess.

Our most natural prayer is "My Father in heaven, hallowed be my name, may my kingdom come, may my will be done on earth." We're afraid of God's will being done because we can't control what he will do, when he will do it, how he will do it, and what the outcome might be.

Prayer Lord, I have spent much of my life running from pain and loss, medicating my pain and quickly moving on to the next project––the new urgent demand. I ask for the grace to embrace all of life—the joys and the sorrows, the deaths and the births, the old and the new. In Jesus' name, amen.

Not only does God not reject or punish us for being honest and transparent about our whole selves, but he actually accepts and loves us where we are. We are anchored in God's love as he gives us permission to express ourselves—the bad along with the good—and take care of ourselves in an appropriate way.

Pocos cristianos involucrados en la espiritualidad contemplativa integran el funcionamiento interior de la salud emocional. Al mismo tiempo, pocas personas involucradas en la salud emocional conforman la espiritualidad contemplativa. Ambas son elementos poderosos y transforman vidas cuando se les trata por separado. Pero juntas brindan nada menos que una revolución espiritual que transforma los lugares ocultos debajo de la superficie.

God may be screaming at us through our physical body while we look for (and prefer) a more "spiritual" signal. The reality is that often our bodies know our feelings before our minds.

True spirituality frees us to live joyfully in the present. It requires, however, going back in order to go forward. This takes us to the very heart of spirituality and discipleship in the family of God—breaking free from the destructive sinful patterns of our pasts to live the life of love God intends.

Is it any wonder that most people live off other people's spirituality rather than taking the time to develop their own direct experience of God? Most Christians talk about prayer but don't pray. Most believe the Bible as the Word of God but have little idea what it says. Our goals for our children differ little from those of "pagans" who do not known God. Like the world, we, too, grade people based on their education, wealth, beauty, and popularity.

This voice told him the goal of ministry was to recognize the Lord's voice, his face, and his touch in every person he met.

You are lovable. You are good. It is so good that you exist.

Other church leavers include those who remained in the church but simply became inactive. After many years of frustration and disappointment, realizing that the black-and-white presentations of the life of faith did not fit with their life experience, they quit—at least internally.

We are also deeply loved. We are a treasure.

You Can't Do God's Work Your Way without Paying a Steep Price

The problem was that I wasn't truly free. Freedom comes when we no longer need to be somebody special in other people's eyes. We are to be content to be popular with him alone.

loving well is the essence of true spirituality.

Some of us are addicted to what others think.

You Can't Live at Warp Speed without Warping Your Soul