Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People

by Nadia Bolz-Weber

that’s the thing about my values — they tend to bump up against reality, and when that happens, I may need to throw them out the window.

when a group of young black men in my neighborhood walk by, my gut reaction is to brace myself in a different way than I would if those men were white. I hate this about myself, but if I said that there is not residual racism in me, racism that — after forty-four years of being reinforced by

messages in the media and culture around me — I simply do not know how to escape, I would be lying. Even if I do own an “eracism” bumper sticker.

my outrage feels good for a while, but only like eating candy corn feels good for a while

I know it’s nothing more than empty calories.

“Those most qualified to speak the gospel are those who truly know how unqualified they are to speak the gospel.”

Sometimes the fact that there is nothing about you that makes you the right person to do something is exactly what God is looking

We can start to see the “poor” as supporting characters in a big story about how noble, selfless, and helpful we are.

the holy things we need for healing and sustenance are almost always the same as the ordinary things right in front of us.

Sometimes I wonder if that is what faith is: risking an openness to something bigger than ourselves — something from which we are made and yet without which we are not complete, our origin and our completion.

I was in full-on rage mode, which I now know is usually just a cover for when I’m full-on scared.

This is the life we get here on earth. We get to give away what we receive. We get to believe in each other. We get to forgive and be forgiven. We get to love imperfectly. And we never know what effect it will have for years to come. And all of it…all of it is completely worth it.

Church isn’t perfect. It’s practice.

any shift I’ve experienced on a spiritual level has almost always happened despite myself, not because of myself.