Shattered Dreams Quotes

“There’s never a moment in all our lives, from the day we trusted Christ till the day we see Him, when God is not longing to bless us. At every moment, in every circumstance, God is doing us good. He never stops. It gives Him too much pleasure. God is not waiting to bless us after our troubles end. He is blessing us right now, in and through those troubles. At this exact moment, He is giving us what He thinks is good.”
― Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: God's Unexpected Path to Joy

“There’s no higher dream than experiencing God as He moves through every circumstance of life to an eternal encounter with Himself where transformed people will enjoy perfectly loving community around Jesus Christ, the source of Perfect Love.”
― Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: God's Unexpected Path to Joy

“That day has come. God is now dealing with us in a new way. Our badness is no longer the obstacle to blessing. Nor is our goodness the condition for blessing.”
― Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: God's Unexpected Path to Joy

“Our generation has lost the concept of finding joy in unfulfilled desire. We no longer know what it means to hope. We want what we want now… . Impatient Westerners prefer quick sanctification. Take your car into the shop and drive it again the next day. Bring your soul to a counselor or pastor and get fixed right away. But wisdom understands that souls are not broken machines that experts fix. Wisdom knows the deep workings of the hungry, hurting, sin-inclined soul and patiently follows as the Spirit moves quietly in those depths, gently nudging people toward God. There is no Concorde that flies us from immaturity to maturity in a few hours. There is only a narrow, bumpy road where a few people walk together as they journey to God.”
― Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: God's Unexpected Path to Joy

“There’s never a moment in all our lives, from the day we trusted Christ till the day we see Him, when God is not longing to bless us. At every moment, in every circumstance, God is doing us good. He never stops. It gives Him too much pleasure. God is not waiting to bless us after our troubles end. He is blessing us right now, in and through those troubles. At this exact moment, He is giving us what He thinks is good. There, of course, is the rub. He gives us what He thinks is good, what He knows is good. We don’t always agree. We have our own ideas about what a good God should do in the middle of our circumstances… Not only do we want what immediately feels good and often dislike what in fact is good for us, but we’re also out of touch with what would bring us the most pleasure if it were given to us.”
― Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: God's Unexpected Pathway to Joy

“It’s so natural to think the Presence of Jesus has no greater purpose than to improve the quality of our journey through life—with quality defined as a pleasurable, satisfying, self-affirming existence—a journey where certain things don’t go wrong or, if they do, they correct themselves. Marriages should work, biopsies should come back benign, ministry efforts should succeed, and we should feel pretty good about the way most things go.”
― Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: God's Unexpected Path to Joy

“The highest dream we could ever dream, the wish that if granted would make us happier than any other blessing, is to know God, to actually experience Him. The problem is that we don’t believe this idea is true. We assent to it in our heads. But we don’t feel it in our hearts.”
― Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: God's Unexpected Pathway to Joy

“Like the seminarian relying more on his knowledge of Hebrew than on the Spirit to hear God’s voice in the text, we’re more prone to carefully maneuvering our way through life than to abandoning ourselves to divine providence.”
― Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: God's Unexpected Path to Joy

“First, the word she used that we translate kindness is the Hebrew hesed. It’s a word that refers to a strongly bonded relationship where one party continues to be faithfully involved with another because it is the character of the first party to do so.”
― Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: God's Unexpected Path to Joy

“That level of honesty is reserved for the counseling office. Church is too often a place of pretense and therefore a place without hope. When brokenness is disdained, where the real story is never told, the power of God is not felt. Where brokenness is invited and received with grace, the gospel comes alive with hope.”
― Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: God's Unexpected Path to Joy