Robert

“It is not our place to render a verdict on the state of another person's soul, and we will be far more effective (and better Christians) when we give people the benefit of the doubt. To simply assume that someone with doubts is guilty of some grave moral transgression or to cause that person to feel in any way unfaithful or unworthy merely because of his questions displays a lack of charity.”
― Patrick Q. Mason, Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt

“Some people's relationship to the divine is primarily mystical, for others it is experiential, and for other still it is intellectual. Spirituality is intensely individual, even for members of the same family or the same church.”
― Patrick Q. Mason, Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt

“A life predicated on good works always has its dangers. The pursuit of righteousness is separated from hypocrisy and pharisaism by only a hair's width. Ritual displays, checked boxes, and achieved goals, however worthy, can easily obscure "the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy, and faith" (Matthew 23:23). Because we live in a community and often know our neighbor's foibles and perhaps even their sins, their white shirts can easily appear as "whited sepulchers" (Matthew 23:27. Patience and forgiveness thus become two of the house of faith's load-bearing walls.”
― Patrick Q. Mason, Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt

“Medicine has become the art of managing extreme complexity.”
― Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto - Atul Gawande: How to Get Things Right