Astonished Quotes

“In so many ways, Jesus turned people’s expectations upside down. Who could have imagined the Creator of the universe invading the earth not in glory, but born to an unwed teenage mother who then placed Him in a feeding trough? Who could have imagined that when Israel’s Messiah appeared, He would be found among the prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners of His day, gaining a reputation as a glutton and a drunkard (Matt. 11:19)? Who could have imagined that God would defeat death by dying? Or conquer evil by allowing its triumph on the cross? Or free humanity by bearing upon Himself the cost of human sin and evil?”
― Mike Erre, Astonished: Recapturing the Wonder, Awe, and Mystery of Life with God

“our infatuation with the spectacular can blind us to the ways in which God moves in and through the ordinary and the common.”
― Mike Erre, Astonished: Recapturing the Wonder, Awe, and Mystery of Life with God

“Welcome, child,” he said. “Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.” “That is because you are older, little one,” answered he. “Not because you are?” “I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”
― Mike Erre, Astonished: Recapturing the Wonder, Awe, and Mystery of Life with God

“our paint-by-numbers, Kinkade Christianity. Instead of escape or pretense, Jesus calls us to be alive and thirsty, allowing disappointment to drive us back to Him. He bids us to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking, all the while feeling the grief and sorrow of human life acutely. To sell Jesus on the basis of meeting felt needs is fine so long as we define how exactly He “meets” those needs. If meeting those needs means the removal of the sin, sorrow, and disappointment of human life, then we’ll be perpetually disappointed. If meeting those needs means that Jesus uses our unfulfilled desires to keep us dependent and reliant upon Him, then we’re getting close to the secret of the full life that Christ offers.”
― Mike Erre, Astonished: Recapturing the Wonder, Awe, and Mystery of Life with God

“is a mistake to market God as the answer to our insatiable desires when He was the one who made certain our desires were insatiable in the first place. God is relentless in His pursuit of humanity; He’ll use anything and everything to bring”
― Mike Erre, Astonished: Recapturing the Wonder, Awe, and Mystery of Life with God

“As a full-time paid religious person, I understand the desire to restrict God’s work to only those who are formally recognized by our religious institutions. But He’s too unpredictable for that.”
― Mike Erre, Astonished: Recapturing the Wonder, Awe, and Mystery of Life with God

“Religion gives us forms and shapes for God to fit into, but He constantly proves to be bigger, wider, and deeper than our boxes. Just when we think we’ve figured out where God is going next, the wind blows somewhere else.”
― Mike Erre, Astonished: Recapturing the Wonder, Awe, and Mystery of Life with God

“Part of our problem is that we confuse God’s reliability with God’s predictability. God is perfectly reliable. His character never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His word never fails. He is love. God does not lie, and there is no hint of darkness in Him. But reliability does not equal predictability. To say that God is always good, faithful, or loving doesn’t mean God always makes sense ahead of time.”
― Mike Erre, Astonished: Recapturing the Wonder, Awe, and Mystery of Life with God

“What Brueggemann calls disorientation can also be called the “dark night of the soul,” or simply “real life.” None of us are immune to the pain and hurt and loss inherent to human life on earth, no matter how much we wish it otherwise.”
― Mike Erre, Astonished: Recapturing the Wonder, Awe, and Mystery of Life with God

“In the gutters of human treason and filth, one may find the God who makes things new. So we must grieve. Darkness and evil are real, and God is not interested in our pretending. But not as those who have no hope. For God’s promised new creation was launched in Jesus’s resurrection; the sure sign that God will restore all things … and this hope, as the apostle Paul says, will not disappoint us.”
― Mike Erre, Astonished: Recapturing the Wonder, Awe, and Mystery of Life with God

“God is relentless in His pursuit of humanity; He’ll use anything and everything to bring us to the place where we’ll acknowledge our need for Him.”
― Mike Erre, Astonished: Recapturing the Wonder, Awe, and Mystery of Life with God

“The more we grow, the longer we walk with Him, the bigger Jesus should get.”
― Mike Erre, Astonished: Recapturing the Wonder, Awe, and Mystery of Life with God