Quotes About Authenticity

The church is never in so much danger as when it is popular and millions of people are saying "I'm born again, born again, born again.

Talking to God, I felt, is always better than talking about God; those pious conversations—there's always a touch of self-approval about them. THERESE OF LISIEUX[1] I

the fact that we are a family of faith does not mean we are one big happy family. The people we encounter as brothers and sisters in faith are not always nice people. They do not stop being sinners the moment they begin believing in Christ.

Having and defending and celebrating the Bible instead of receiving, submitting to, and praying the Bible, masks an enormous amount of nonreading.

What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for? "If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I'm leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that you'll be an even greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when he arrives in all the splendor of God, his Father, with an army of the holy angels.

Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.   Wake up from your sleep, Climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light!  

Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

But if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.

We must pray who we actually are, not who we think we should be.

David's isn't an ideal life but an actual life.

no matter if we come home with the Olympic gold or make a million dollars or pioneer the exploration of space or move the world with some artistic performance or discover the cure to cancer—if we do not love, it is not satisfactory. No matter if we are responsible and work hard and do our jobs well and stay out of trouble and are respected, if we do not love, then somehow we have failed. If we live but do not love, we miss it.

These labels are inevitable and in many ways useful but the common element to them is that they are impersonal and partial; when they become all-encompassing, which they too frequently do, they distort our core identity. They say almost nothing, or what is even worse, the wrong thing, about who we actually are.

But we do know that much of what we commonly describe as Christian behavior is not volitional at all—it is enforced. But worship is not forced. Everyone who worships does so because he or she wants to.

Congregation is composed of people, who, upon entering a church, leave behind what people on the street name or call them.

You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?

Good poetry survives not when it is pretty or beautiful or nice but when it is true: accurate and honest.

And yet I decide, every day, to set aside what I can do best and attempt what I do very clumsily--open myself to the frustrations and failures of loving, daring to believe that failing in love is better than succeeding in pride.

You don't make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true.

Countless human beings wear masks which they hope will cover up what they dislike about themselves.

I'm writing a story in my journal, and I'm searching for a true voice. I make my way through layers of acquired voices, silly voices, sententious voices, voices that are too cool and too overheated. Then they all quiet down, and I reach what I'm searching for: silence.

We mustn't only remember the good bits," she said. "We must remember the bad bits, too, so that we know it was real.

I don't regret anything I ever do or say. I don't like to live my life being censored. I like to say what I feel, and I think people respect that because you're honest.

I don't like my men to be too ornate. I like them to stand back and let their women shine, and they should really wear the pants in the relationship.