Overall, the concept was unique and interesting and I was pretty well entranced with this book so I read it pretty quickly. I think it's a good read for a lot of people as long as you're okay with reading about God a lot.
"From the few stories Mack has told me, I know his daddy was not a fall-asleep-happy kind of alcoholic but a vicious, mean, beat-your-wife-and-then-ask-God-for-forgiveness drunk."
"Techno gizmos that somehow make everything go faster, as if life weren't going fast enough already."
"Suffice it to say that while some things may not be scientifically provable, they can still be true nonetheless."
"Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets." - Paul Turnier
"Even his efforts to shake it [The Great Sadness] off were exhausting, as if his arms were sewn into its bleak folds of despair and he had somehow become part of it."
"He was a rich man ... in all the ways that mattered."
[On the death of his father] "Well, life is hard sometimes, but I have a lot to be thankful for."
"Please call me Sam. Short for Samantha, but I grew up kind of a tomboy and beat up the
kids who would dare call me Samantha to my face."
"Emotions seemed so near to the surface, and even the least bit of kindness seemed to poke holes in his reserve."
"God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them listen to and follow sacred scripture, properly interpreted, of course. God's voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects. It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized, while educated Westerners' access to God was mediated and controlled by intelligentsia. Nobody wanted God in a box, just a book. Especially an expensive one bound in leather with gilt edges, or was that guilt edges?"
"Sometimes honesty can be incredibly messy."
"Oh, don't go [talk to God] because you feel obligated. That won't get you any points around here. Go because it's what you want to do."
"You were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around. ... Pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly. ... And if it's left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place."
"Let's pray that the human race never escapes Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere." -C.S. Lewis
"He knew that it didn't matter whose fault it was - the mess from some bowl that had been broken, that a planned dish would not be shared. Obviously, what was truly important here was the love they had for one another and the fullness it brought them. He shook his head. How different this was from the way he sometimes treated the ones he loved."
"Being always transcends appearance - that which only seems to be. Once you begin to know the being behind the very pretty or very ugly face, as determined by your bias, the surface appearances fade away until they simply no longer matter."
"I'll never get tired of looking at this [starry sky]. The wonder of it all - the 'wastefulness of creation', as one of our brothers has called it. So elegant, so full of longing and beauty even now."
"Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown."
"What you're seeing here is a relationship without any overlay of power. We don't need power over the other because we are always looking out for the best. ... Humans are so lost and damaged that to you it is almost incomprehensible that people could work or live together without someone being in charge. ... It's one reason why experiencing true relationship is so difficult for you. Once you have a hierarchy you need rules to protect and administer it, and then you need law and the enforcement of the rules, and you end up with some kind of chain of command or a system of order that destroys relationship rather than promotes it. ... When you choose independence over relationship, you become a danger to one another. Others became objects to be manipulated for your own happiness. Authority, as you usually think of it, is merely the excuse the strong ones use to make others conform to what they want."
"Even should we find another Eden, we would not be fit to enjoy it perfectly nor stay in it forever." - Henry Van Dyke
"Such a powerful ability, the imagination! ... But without wisdom, imagination is a cruel taskmaster."
"I live in the present. Not the past, although much can be remembered and learned by looking back, but only for a visit, not an extended stay."
"To force my will on you is exactly what love does not do. Genuine relationships are marked by submission even when your choices are not helpful or healthy. ... Submission is not about authority and it is not obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect."
"What they [my children] do might affect my pride, but not my love for them."
"[God] doesn't stop a lot of things that cause her pain. Your world is severely broken. You demanded your independence, and now you are angry with the One who loved you enough to give it to you. Nothing is as it should be, as Papa desires it to be, and as it will be one day. Right now your world is lost I darkness and chaos, and horrible things happen to those she is especially fond of."
"This life is only the anteroom of a greater reality to come. No one reaches their potential in your world. It's only preparation for what Papa had in mind all along."
"Even if you had been to blame, her love is stronger than your fault could ever be."
"As well-intentioned as it might be, you know religious machinery can chew people up."
"These terrors [institutions, religion, politics, as economics] are tools that many use to prop up their illusions of security and control. People are afraid of uncertainty, afraid of failure. These institutions, these structures ave ideologies, are all a vain effort to create some sense of certainty and security where there isn't any."
"Just because I [God] work out incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn't mean I orchestrate the tragedies. ... Grace doesn't depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors."
"If anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again."
"Even his efforts to shake it [The Great Sadness] off were exhausting, as if his arms were sewn into its bleak folds of despair and he had somehow become part of it."
"He was a rich man ... in all the ways that mattered."
[On the death of his father] "Well, life is hard sometimes, but I have a lot to be thankful for."
"Please call me Sam. Short for Samantha, but I grew up kind of a tomboy and beat up the
kids who would dare call me Samantha to my face."
"Emotions seemed so near to the surface, and even the least bit of kindness seemed to poke holes in his reserve."
"God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them listen to and follow sacred scripture, properly interpreted, of course. God's voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects. It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized, while educated Westerners' access to God was mediated and controlled by intelligentsia. Nobody wanted God in a box, just a book. Especially an expensive one bound in leather with gilt edges, or was that guilt edges?"
"Sometimes honesty can be incredibly messy."
"Oh, don't go [talk to God] because you feel obligated. That won't get you any points around here. Go because it's what you want to do."
"You were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around. ... Pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly. ... And if it's left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place."
"Let's pray that the human race never escapes Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere." -C.S. Lewis
"He knew that it didn't matter whose fault it was - the mess from some bowl that had been broken, that a planned dish would not be shared. Obviously, what was truly important here was the love they had for one another and the fullness it brought them. He shook his head. How different this was from the way he sometimes treated the ones he loved."
"Being always transcends appearance - that which only seems to be. Once you begin to know the being behind the very pretty or very ugly face, as determined by your bias, the surface appearances fade away until they simply no longer matter."
"I'll never get tired of looking at this [starry sky]. The wonder of it all - the 'wastefulness of creation', as one of our brothers has called it. So elegant, so full of longing and beauty even now."
"Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown."
"What you're seeing here is a relationship without any overlay of power. We don't need power over the other because we are always looking out for the best. ... Humans are so lost and damaged that to you it is almost incomprehensible that people could work or live together without someone being in charge. ... It's one reason why experiencing true relationship is so difficult for you. Once you have a hierarchy you need rules to protect and administer it, and then you need law and the enforcement of the rules, and you end up with some kind of chain of command or a system of order that destroys relationship rather than promotes it. ... When you choose independence over relationship, you become a danger to one another. Others became objects to be manipulated for your own happiness. Authority, as you usually think of it, is merely the excuse the strong ones use to make others conform to what they want."
"Even should we find another Eden, we would not be fit to enjoy it perfectly nor stay in it forever." - Henry Van Dyke
"Such a powerful ability, the imagination! ... But without wisdom, imagination is a cruel taskmaster."
"I live in the present. Not the past, although much can be remembered and learned by looking back, but only for a visit, not an extended stay."
"To force my will on you is exactly what love does not do. Genuine relationships are marked by submission even when your choices are not helpful or healthy. ... Submission is not about authority and it is not obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect."
"What they [my children] do might affect my pride, but not my love for them."
"[God] doesn't stop a lot of things that cause her pain. Your world is severely broken. You demanded your independence, and now you are angry with the One who loved you enough to give it to you. Nothing is as it should be, as Papa desires it to be, and as it will be one day. Right now your world is lost I darkness and chaos, and horrible things happen to those she is especially fond of."
"This life is only the anteroom of a greater reality to come. No one reaches their potential in your world. It's only preparation for what Papa had in mind all along."
"Even if you had been to blame, her love is stronger than your fault could ever be."
"As well-intentioned as it might be, you know religious machinery can chew people up."
"These terrors [institutions, religion, politics, as economics] are tools that many use to prop up their illusions of security and control. People are afraid of uncertainty, afraid of failure. These institutions, these structures ave ideologies, are all a vain effort to create some sense of certainty and security where there isn't any."
"Just because I [God] work out incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn't mean I orchestrate the tragedies. ... Grace doesn't depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors."
"If anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again."
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