Quotes from Philip Yancey

the same answer from suffering people: it matters little what we say — our concern and availability matter far more. If we can offer a listening ear, that may be the most appreciated gift of all.

He had not come primarily to heal the world's cells, but to heal its souls.

When a couple encounters a crisis, it magnifies what's already present in the relationship.

Faith like Job's cannot be shaken because it is the result of having been shaken." C.

the best way to prepare for suffering is to work on a strong, supportive life when you're healthy.

The only thing harder than forgiveness is the alternative.

Do not forget that the value and interest of life is not so much to do conspicuous things . . . as to do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value. PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN

We live in an atmosphere choked with the fumes of ungrace. Grace comes from outside, as a gift and not an achievement.

Dr. Brand said, in a comment that has always stayed with me, "A healthy body attends to the pain of the weakest part.

As Solzhenitsyn elegantly expressed it in his classic One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, faith in God may not get you out of the camp, but it is enough to see you through each day.

Legalism is a subtle danger because no one thinks of himself as a legalist. My own rules seem necessary; other people's rules seem excessively strict.

Democracy requires us to recognize others' rights even when we fundamentally disagree with them.

God's grace is not a grandfatherly display of "niceness," for it cost the exorbitant price of Calvary.

Sadly, Jesus' followers tend to take the reverse approach. Some churches gradually lower the ideals, accommodating moral standards to a changing culture. Others raise the bar of grace so that needy people feel unwelcome: "We don't want that kind of person in our church." Either way we fail to communicate the spectacular good news that everyone fails and yet a gracious God offers forgiveness to all.

Aun cuando todo parezca fuera de control, Dios sigue dominando con toda firmeza

Confieso que, a pesar de las largas horas de estudio de los profetas, no tengo un entendimiento más claro de lo que sucederá el año próximo ni en el año 2025. Pero tengo una idea mucho más clara de lo que Dios desea lograr en mi vida ahora mismo. Y estoy ganando, gradualmente, confianza para creer en el presente lo que solo será totalmente entendible cuando se vea desde el futuro.

No society in history has attempted to live without a belief in the sacred, not until the modern West.

Pain allows us, the fortunate ones at least, to lead free and active lives. If you ever doubt that, visit a leprosarium and observe for yourself a world without pain.

God shattered the inexorable law of sin and retribution by invading earth, absorbing the worst we had to offer, crucifixion, and then fashioning from that cruel deed the remedy for the human condition. Calvary broke up the logjam between justice and forgiveness. By accepting onto his innocent self all the severe demands of justice, Jesus broke forever the chain of ungrace.

a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness.

As Christ's body on earth we are compelled to move, as he did, toward those who hurt. That has been God's consistent movement in all history.

What would it mean, I ask myself, if I too came to the place where I saw my primary identity in life as "the one Jesus loves"? How differently would I view myself at the end of a day?

Nature teaches me nothing about Incarnation or the Victorious Christian Life. It does, though, awaken my desire to meet whoever is responsible for the monarch butterfly.

do worry about the recent tendency for the labels "evangelical Christian" and "religious right" to become interchangeable. Increasingly Christians are perceived as rigid moralists who want to control others' lives.