Finding Faith Quotes

“As I said before, evolution doesn’t bother me. If you tell me that God created the earth “by hand” in six days some thousands of years ago, I am impressed. If you tell me instead that God set a whole cosmos in motion some billions of years ago, a cosmos perfectly calibrated within the narrowest of margins to produce at least one planet where life would be developed through cause-effect chains that were designed into it by a purposeful Designer… I am no less impressed; in fact, I may be even more impressed. The “how” and “when” of it all seem almost inconsequential to me compared to the “what” and “why” which lie beyond cause and effect.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Finding Faith---A Search for What Is Real

“There is a difference — subtle but very significant — between having faith in my faith (i.e., faith in my intellectual concepts about God — another way of saying “leaning on my own understanding”) and having faith in God. There is a corresponding difference between doubting my faith and doubting God.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Finding Faith---A Search for What Is Real

“Can you imagine Jesus saying, “Believe that I am the only way. Why? Because I said so, that’s why! And if you don’t believe, then you’re going straight to hell!” But isn’t that how we present him through our slogans?”
― Brian D. McLaren, Finding Faith---A Search for What Is Real

“Cause-effect looks back and asks, “What caused this?” Purpose looks up or ahead, and asks, “And why was it caused? For what purpose? For what end?” Cause-effect looks for a force pushing events from behind. Purpose looks for a pattern or design or intention or meaning pulling events from ahead, guiding them from above, enriching them from within.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Finding Faith---A Search for What Is Real

“Being able to know and feel what Karl knows and feels… that no matter what, I am God’s, and God is mine… that we have a connection; we have a relationship. Faith in your life brings God in your life.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Finding Faith---A Search for What Is Real

“I do know this about pride: pride is tiring, a cruel task-master, a complicator, a destroyer. Humility, in contrast, relaxes, refreshes, relieves, simplifies, renews. To the degree that becoming childlike includes becoming humble, humility releases childlike play, laughter, sleep, smiles, fun. Our pride forces us to take ourselves so seriously, which leads us to take others less seriously and God less seriously still.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Finding Faith---A Search for What Is Real

“Enter faith, and a whole new factor enters the equation. Words like “impossible” seem out of place. Despair and cynicism feel like insults to God. Hope grows, and love, and therefore motivation to care, to give, to act, to try, to dream, to risk.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Finding Faith---A Search for What Is Real

“Church!” she cried. “Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Finding Faith---A Search for What Is Real

“Postmoderns are not less interested in religion than ever before. Indeed, they are exploring new religious experiences like never before. The church has simply given them a less interesting religion than ever before. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic”
― Brian D. McLaren, Finding Faith---A Search for What Is Real

“our relationships with God go through similar phases sometimes. We aren’t comfortable with each other. The conversation doesn’t flow as well. We aren’t sure we can trust as before — or we aren’t sure we can be trusted as before. At those tough times, I have learned that there is a lot to be said for just hanging in there. For keeping on going to church. For saying your prayers. For keeping the communication lines open. For sustaining your relationship on pure, stubborn commitment when all the warm feelings of affection seem gone forever. That kind of willpower, I am learning, is one of the purest forms of faith — a kind of faith you just don’t develop until you are forced to, when your relationship with God seems to have gone bad. Sometimes faith means believing that doubt is just a stage, a rotten mood that will pass, and that in time, by the grace of God, you will get over it, and be old friends again in a new, deeper way.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Finding Faith---A Search for What Is Real

“We hate those times of weakness, but I can see why life would be engineered to bring us to them; without them, we might never learn what faith is at all. Someone has said that you never know if your faith is real until it is all you have left.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Finding Faith---A Search for What Is Real

“I don’t think we should give up on ritual. I don’t think we should give up on any possible means of experiencing God.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Finding Faith---A Search for What Is Real