Just Shy of Harmony Quotes

“Truth doesn’t need elaboration or embellishment; it can stand on its own two legs. All the adornment in the world doesn’t make the truth any more true.”
― Philip Gulley, Just Shy of Harmony

“Enough of this nonsense,” Fern Hampton interrupted. “What this church needs is a vanity table in the women’s rest room.” Sam sat in his folding chair, thinking of churches that had homeless shelters and soup kitchens and raised money to send doctors to Africa to help lepers. He wished there was a leper in Harmony they could help. There’s nothing like a leper to stir up a church, he thought.”
― Philip Gulley, Just Shy of Harmony: A Harmony Novel

“There’ll be times,” Pastor Taylor had told Sam in a quiet, hesitant voice, “when your flock will minister to you. Dark nights of the soul when it feels you’ve lost your way. And you have to let them. Sam, you have to let them help you.”
― Philip Gulley, Just Shy of Harmony: A Harmony Novel

“That was when Sam had proposed doing away with Goal-Setting Sunday. “Why do we even bother? We set these goals and make a big deal out of it for a month or so, then we forget all about it. When we do remember it, we feel bad that we didn’t do anything. Why don’t we just skip Goal-Setting Sunday this year?” That had gone over like a pregnant pole-vaulter. Dale had quoted from the book of Revelation about lukewarm churches and how God would spew them out of his mouth. “Do you want the Lord to spit us out, Sam? Is that what you want? ’Cause I tell you right now, that’s what He’ll do. You’re leading us down a slippery slope. First, we’ll stop doing the Goal-Setting Sunday, then the next thing you know there’ll be fornication right here in the church. You watch and see.” Any deviation from tradition had Dale Hinshaw prophesying an outbreak of fornication in the church pews. It took Sam several years to learn he was better off keeping quiet and not suggesting anything new. “Just go along with it,” his wife had told him. “It’s only one Sunday a year. Let them do whatever they’re going to do. It’s easier that way.” So when Dale suggested at the elders meeting that it was time for Goal-Setting Sunday, Sam didn’t argue. They scheduled it for the first Sunday after Easter, which is when they’ve always held it, lest fornication break out in the church.”
― Philip Gulley, Just Shy of Harmony: A Harmony Novel

“Miriam Hodge spoke. “I read in the Herald last week that the mental-health center is trying to raise money. I thought we could hold a fund-raiser and help with that.” She turned to Sam. “What do you think, Sam?” Sam looked at Dale Hinshaw sitting in his chair, poring over his sheaf of papers. “I suspect there are several people in this town who could benefit from therapy,” Sam told her. Dale Hinshaw rose to his feet. “I don’t want to be a wet blanket, but the Lord won’t let me keep quiet on this one. That mental-health group is a dangerous bunch, if you ask me. I think some of ’em might even be homosexual. At least they look that way to me. I just don’t think we oughta be giving the Lord’s money to the work of the devil.” “Well, I think helping the mental-health center is a wonderful idea,” Jessie Peacock said. Miriam wrote mental health center on the blackboard.”
― Philip Gulley, Just Shy of Harmony: A Harmony Novel

“Legacies are hard to come by, after all. And if you have one going, you ought to do what you can to keep it alive.”
― Philip Gulley, Just Shy of Harmony