Nicole Schwartz-Eck > Nicole's Quotes

“Breathing Under Water,” a title taken from a telling poem by Carol Bieleck, r.s.c.j., which seemed to sum up so much of the common message. I quote it here in full:   “Breathing Under Water”   I built my house by the sea. Not on the sands, mind you; not on the shifting sand. And I built it of rock. A strong house by a strong sea. And we got well acquainted, the sea and I. Good neighbors. Not that we spoke much. We met in silences. Respectful, keeping our distance, but looking our thoughts across the fence of sand. Always, the fence of sand our barrier, always, the sand between.   And then one day, —and I still don’t know how it happened— the sea came. Without warning.   Without welcome, even Not sudden and swift, but a shifting across the sand like wine, less like the flow of water than the flow of blood. Slow, but coming. Slow, but flowing like an open wound. And I thought of flight and I thought of drowning and I thought of death. And while I thought the sea crept higher, till it reached my door. And I knew then, there was neither flight, nor death, nor drowning. That when the sea comes calling you stop being neighbors Well acquainted, friendly-at-a-distance, neighbors And you give your house for a coral castle, And you learn to breathe underwater.3”
― Richard Rohr, Breathing Underwater

“I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic and she said yes I asked her if it was okay to be short and she said it sure is I asked her if I could wear nail polish or not wear nail polish and she said honey she calls me that sometimes she said you can do just exactly what you want to Thanks God I said And is it even okay if I don’t paragraph my letters Sweetcakes, God said who knows where she picked that up what I’m telling you is Yes Yes Yes —Kaylin Haught1 1. Kaylin Haught, “God Says Yes to Me,” in The Palm of Your Hand (Thomaston, ME: Tilbury House, 1995). Introduction”
― Karoline Lewis, She: Five Keys to Unlock the Power of Women in Ministry

“In other words, questions about the validity of your ministry, your ability to do ministry, or who you are in ministry all have a causal point that has little to do with those specific questions, or is only tangentially related; the stated questions have more to do with unnamed and unexamined assumptions and expectations than the issue named on the surface. Being able to identify this underlying matter when addressing a superficial issue as presented is an important strategy for success. If you spend your time and energy tending the manifesting topic rather than the fundamental concern, this will be a significant cause, at best, for fatigue in your ministry and, at worst, for burnout. Managing the indications without addressing their root cause will also lead to a personal sense of loss—and likely an actual loss—of your own power.”
― Karoline Lewis, She: Five Keys to Unlock the Power of Women in Ministry

“while he emphasized that peace is wonderful, Rogers was not altogether starry-eyed in this first week. In fact, he seemed quite the political realist in teaching us that peacemaking will be hard work. It will certainly require the most creative thoughts our moral imagination can muster. Like Daniel Striped Tiger, we will have to move beyond typical options and come up with creative strategies that surprise and shock the warmongers we seek to influence. Peacemaking will also no doubt be time-consuming. It will require us, as it did Lady Aberlin, to take time off from our regular work to create and carry out unique plans we would not normally even consider. And peacemaking will lead us into moments of doubt and uncertainty. Like Lady Aberlin and Mister Rogers, we will find ourselves wondering whether our ideas will really work.”
― Michael G. Long, Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers

“Rogers’s belief that a ruler’s power, like King Friday’s, is ultimately dependent upon complicity or cooperation from those he or she rules, and that when the governed begin to withdraw their cooperation, as Lady Aberlin and Daniel Striped Tiger did, the power of the ruling authority begins to crumble.”
― Michael G. Long, Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers

“Our assumptions got us to where we are, but they won’t necessarily get us where we need to go. I’ve found four questions in particular are helpful when your church stops growing.”
― Carey Nieuwhof, Lasting Impact: 7 Powerful Conversations That Will Help Your Church Grow

“Thomas Aquinas (1224–74) on the virtue of courage, I happened across a vice he called pusillanimity, which means “smallness of soul.” Those afflicted by this vice, wrote Aquinas, shrink back from all that God has called them to be. When faced with the effort and difficulty of stretching themselves to the great things of which they are capable, they cringe and say, “I can’t.” In short, the pusillanimous rely on their own puny powers and focus on their own potential for failure, rather than counting on God’s grace to equip them for great work in his kingdom—work beyond anything they might have dreamed of for themselves.”
― Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies

“That I shrank back from all God called me to be and that I judged my own abilities as inadequate because I was not relying on God’s grace to grant me strength—these perhaps are insights so obvious I should have seen them for myself.”
― Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies

“While there are some local churches that will be lost if we don’t change, there’s more at stake than that. There’s a generation that won’t know the power of people committed to self-sacrifice and transforming both themselves and the wider community through the Gospel.”
― Carey Nieuwhof, Leading Change Without Losing It: Five Strategies That Can Revolutionize How You Lead Change When Facing Opposition

“Love has won infinitely more converts than theology. The first believers were drawn to Christ’s mercy long before they understood His divinity. That brings us back to the overemphasis on Sunday morning as the front door: If love is the most effective way—and the Bible says it is—then how much genuine love can one pastor show an entire congregation? His bandwidth is not wide enough; this is a crippling, impossible burden. When he fails to connect with every person (which he will), the congregation becomes disgruntled because he can’t fulfill what should have been their mission. Nor can a random group of strangers standing in a church lobby offer legitimate community to some sojourner who walks in the door.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“Maybe it’s my tattoos talking, but this is my favorite missional mandate. Because the perception of Christians as self-righteous segregationists is so prevailing, it is such a pleasure to represent a new expression of faith. For me this is not hard, this is not work, this is not a sacrifice, this is not uncomfortable. A missional approach to a disoriented world has made discipleship fun again. To put it into highly intelligent terms, I get to skip all the church-speak and level with people authentically. I can accept a lovely glass of red wine at a neighbor’s house and later get an earful about her marriage struggles. Brandon organizes neighborhood Texas Hold ’em nights to show those men another face of the pastorate; consequently, he’s the first person they call in crisis. The eight families in our community group throw Halloween bashes and Christmas extravaganzas and potluck dinners and pool parties in our little subdivision. It’s the smallest corner of the world, but it’s the one we’ve been sent to, and we consider ourselves missionaries here.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“Theology very naturally follows belief, but belief very rarely follows judgment.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

“One of the risks of being quiet is that the other people can fill your silence with their own interpretation: You’re bored. You’re depressed. You’re shy. You’re stuck up. You’re judgemental. When others can’t read us, they write their own story—not always one we choose or that’s true to who we are.”
― Sophia Dembling, The Introvert's Way: Living a Quiet Life in a Noisy World

“We can’t live uncommon lives if we’re so consumed by what others might think of us. Being popular and well-liked isn’t the goal for our time on earth. Be kind and love well, but for heaven’s sake, don’t be scared of being you.”
― Carey Scott, Uncommon: Pursuing a Life of Passion and Purpose

“But all of what Jesus says in this chapter should be read in light of the opening few verses: “Do whatever they teach you and follow it” (23: 3). All of it should be read in light of Jesus’ words in the earlier sermon, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter” (5: 20). It seems unreasonable to suggest, in light of Jesus’ comparison, that the Pharisees were not a serious, and highly influential, religious movement during the first century. Jesus’ “woes” against the tradition’s bearers is not a direct attack on tradition itself, but an attack on its appropriation especially when “justice, and mercy, and faith” are disregarded (23: 23). Religious practices ought not to replace genuine acts of piety for the sake of others. For this Jesus states clearly, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (9: 13; 12: 7).”
― David Desilva, Invitation to the New Testament: Participant Book: A Short-Term DISCIPLE Bible Study

“At a point where I finally had nothing to give anyone, I reached out, and there He was. When I opened my eyes to the awareness that faith is not something I have to muster up or reach on tiptoes to grasp, but accept as God continually pursues, it was here my faith came alive.”
― Bekah Jane Pogue, Choosing Real: An Invitation to Celebrate When Life Doesn't Go as Planned

“RBG firmly believed that for women to be equal, men had to be free.”
― Irin Carmon, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“I think that men and women, shoulder to shoulder, will work together to make this a better world. Just as I don’t think that men are the superior sex, neither do I think women are. I think that it is great that we are beginning to use the talents of all of the people, in all walks of life, and that we no longer have the closed doors that we once had.” —RBG”
― Irin Carmon, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“Those who insist on preserving yesterday when today has already swept it away like sand on a beach lose the opportunity to guide the present. Rather they insist on resisting the present to the point that it simply fails to notice them anymore. It is a choice whether to run the risk of becoming part of a comfortable but insignificant cult in a society that is passing or participate in the efforts of a society that is rushing to regain its balance in a headwind of major proportions.”
― Joan D. Chittister, Between the Dark and the Daylight: Embracing the Contradictions of Life

“Everything new is not the end of the world. Instead, it is the beginning of a new way of being alive that is based on the past but has already grown beyond it.”
― Joan D. Chittister, Between the Dark and the Daylight: Embracing the Contradictions of Life

“Rogue waves are the dangerous ones; they are the ones that no one takes note of or prepares to manage. These are the movements we should have seen but did not. Or, worse, they are what we saw coming but refused to acknowledge in the hope that ignoring them would make them go away.”
― Joan D. Chittister, Between the Dark and the Daylight: Embracing the Contradictions of Life