Matthew McConnell’s Reviews > The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives > Status Update

“The need for extensive practice of a given discipline is an indication of our weakness, not our strength. We can even lay it down as a rule of thumb that if it is easy for us to engage in a certain discipline, we probably don't need to practice it. The disciplines we need to practice are precisely the ones we are not "good at" and hence do not enjoy.”

“How many people are radically and permanently repelled from The Way by Christians who are unfeeling, stiff, unapproachable, boringly lifeless, obsessive, and dissatisfied? Yet such Christians are everywhere, and what they are missing is the wholesome liveliness springing from a balanced vitality within the freedom of God's loving rule.”

“Lewis Sperry Chafer remarks that it is a morbid human consciousness that has misled us into the view that to be spiritual one must avoid play, diversion, and helpful amusement. This view, however, is not only opposed to scriptural teaching, but is a device of Satan to make the blessed life in God distasteful to young people overflowing with physical energy.”

“Who are we humans? What are we supposed to do? Surely life is for more than just surviving, or mastering nature and other human beings. Why are we here? The inability to answer such questions is one of the most striking and troublesome quandaries of being a human.”