All That's Good Quotes

“Discernment,” C.H. Spurgeon once famously quipped, “is knowing the difference between right and almost right.” Tweaking that ever so slightly, discernment is knowing the difference between what is good and what is better. And sometimes, seeking what is better means learning to trust God while you wait for Him to supply it.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“What we choose to speak about and how we speak about it are part of the message we send to each other and the larger culture we create.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“When we encounter someone who holds a viewpoint we don’t agree with, we can begin to view their whole existence through the lens of our disagreement with them. Instead of getting to know them and engaging their ideas, we assume that we already know them because we know where they stand on a certain political or religious question. And the degree to which we disagree with them on this question becomes the degree to which we will disrespect and disregard their humanity. They become our cultural enemy with whom we can’t imagine having anything in common. We can’t imagine that they, like us, are people who love their families, walk their dogs, work hard at their jobs, enjoy a good book, and might just be working toward the common good (even if we disagree about what “good” looks like). By separating ourselves into categories of “us” and “them,” we can justify mocking them, misrepresenting their views, and (in extreme cases) condoning violence against them. But “when we engage in dehumanizing rhetoric or promote dehumanizing images,” writes sociologist Brené Brown, “we diminish our own humanity in the process.”6”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“Discernment gives you the ability to both appreciate the subtle beauty of a Renoir and spot a fake.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“If, however, we spend our days talking about good, worthy, glorious things, there is the strong likelihood that our lives will be filled with good, worthy, glorious things.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“If we are to seek whatever is honorable, it must include seeking the honor that is inherent in God's image bearers. We must recognize their intrinsic dignity and hold it in high esteem. There is no wiggle room on this. No matter how different a person may be from us, no matter what political, social, or moral views they may hold, no matter how strongly and vehemently we disagree with them, no matter their crimes, we must not dishonor the image of God in them. To joke about their death or destruction, to celebrate their pain and loss, to openly mock and belittle their struggles is to blaspheme the God in whose image they are created.

This is no easy thing---especially when someone is not living honorably themselves, when they are not living in a way that is consistent with their identity as an image bearer. Somehow their hatred, pride, and deceit are able to draw hatred, pride, and deceit from us. That's why in his first epistle, Peter makes a point to call slaves to honor unkind masters, wives to honor unbelieving husbands, and all to honor the emperor---an emperor who at that very moment was seeking their lives. In calling us to honor those who have, in all human logic, forfeited the right to honor, we testify to a greater reality: whether or not a person is living within the dignity of their identity as an image bearer does not change the fact that God has bestowed dignity on them.

In honoring them, we honor God.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“If we speak lightly about serious things, and seriously about inconsequential things—we will be unable to discern what is good because our entire moral ballast will shift.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“As much as we want other people’s sins exposed, we must be willing to have ours exposed too. We must be willing to admit when we’ve misjudged, misunderstood, and misapplied. We must not be afraid of good, honest, uncomfortable questions because ultimately good, honest, uncomfortable questions will lead us to a richer, deeper understanding of truth and ourselves. And this is how truth leads to goodness. Truth will not leave us alone. It will not allow us to be less than God intends us to be. It will press and pull and stretch us. It will force us out of the shadows, out from behind closed doors into the freedom and light of day.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“What if we could see the world as God sees it—in all its brokenness and beauty—and in seeing, be able to do more than endure this life?”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“While the Scripture encourages us to give up our liberties for the good of each other, the goal is not conformity. We sacrifice for each other because we are in relationship with each other, not in order to stay in relationship with each other. This nuance is essential because it helps us discern the difference between healthy and unhealthy communities. Because as much as healthy communities can lead us to wisdom and goodness, unhealthy communities can actually hinder our developing discernment. Another point that Jacobs makes in How to Think is how often we conform to community expectations and toe the party line, not because we are convinced it’s right or good, but because speaking out against it would jeopardize our membership in the group. Sometimes this may mean accepting bad treatment for ourselves, as in abusive relationships, or enabling the abuse of others, all in order to stay in the group. Jacobs says that we can tell the difference between an unhealthy community and a healthy one by its attitude toward discernment. An unhealthy community “discourages, mocks, and ruthlessly excludes those who ask uncomfortable questions. … The genuine community is open to thinking and questioning, so long as those thoughts and questions come from people of goodwill.”9 In fact, the dissenting voice is so important to finding goodness that God has equipped certain people with a particular gift for discernment.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“But what happens when a community can’t receive dissenting opinions? At the very least, it won’t benefit from those with the gift of discernment, and because of the pressure to conform, those with the gift might be tempted to remain silent about the danger they see. But in the silence, the community risks coming under the control of false, manipulative leaders while those who do have insight from God are ignored. Correspondingly, those with the gift of discernment might become so frustrated that they are tempted to use it to judge and divide the Body, rather than heal it.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“Remember that discernment is not concerned primarily with our social comfort. It is concerned with goodness. And sometimes pursuing goodness will lead us outside the boundaries of polite conversation.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“Despite all the pain, all the sorrow, all the questions, goodness still exists because God still exists. And because He does, He has not left us to sort through the mess alone.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“We seek things that are “right” just to realize how not right, how un-right, how unrighteous, we are. But here too, seeking justice leads to goodness, because when we seek justice, we will find the One who justifies the unjust.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“If you are entrusted with a certain gift, most of the people around you won’t be similarly gifted. They won’t be able to see as clearly because God has not equipped them to. But being gifted with discernment does not give you permission to be spiteful, arrogant, or judgmental toward them. It is your responsibility to help the community by raising uncomfortable questions and then waiting patiently while it struggles with them. And more than likely, you’ll have to wait much longer than you want.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“It is a quality of life to be cultivated that goes deeper than a checklist. Thus "discernment does not change the challenges we face; it changes our ability to face them.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“discernment does not change the challenges we face; it changes our ability to face them.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“But in broader usage, discernment simply means developing a taste for what’s good.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“when we truly see the loveliness of our brothers and sisters, our hearts will respond as it does to any other form of loveliness: in celebration of their Creator—a Creator so wise, so imaginative, so kind as to create each one of us. And when we celebrate their Creator, we will guard the loveliness He has made. We will sacrifice for it, even if it means sacrificing our own desire for it. This is something of what we mean when we talk about not objectifying other people. Their beauty is not ours to possess; it is not ours to consume. It is ours to protect.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“A woman or man can be an object of our admiration. We can feel drawn to them. We can recognize and identify their wit or beauty or desirability and still relate to them in ways that are holy and good. The word “lovely” in Philippians 4 is based on the Greek root for the love between brothers and sisters: phileō. And this is exactly how we must engage the loveliness that rests on each other. We must engage each other as brothers and sisters who are seeking each other’s good.13 We must let each other’s beauty draw us heavenward.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“there is also the real risk that we would dismiss and ignore the loveliness of another person. Because we don’t trust ourselves to respond to them appropriately, we hold them at arm’s length, effectively resisting and denying their loveliness.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“One of the difficulties of pursuing whatever is lovely is that the people around us are very lovely beings, and we don’t always know how to relate to their loveliness in discerning ways.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“The problem is not our riches, but a mindset that lets the bottom line define what is good and what isn’t. In such a value system, beauty cannot compete. In such a value system, we cannot see the worth of something that is slow and unpredictable and unquantifiable. And if we let the desire for money keep us from sacrificing for beauty in this life, that same mindset most certainly has the potential to keep us from experiencing it in the next.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“We will sell all that we have to find Him because He left all that He had to find us.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“And I can’t help but think that the work of cultivating discernment is part of the larger work that God is doing in the world. A work of rescue and redemption, of recovery and restoration. The work of making all things good once again.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“we must learn to trust the goodness of God—to trust that even if we do fail, even when we do make a mistake, His goodness will lead us to repentance and bring us safely home.9”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“Because we can’t custom order our lives, we must become people who can spot goodness wherever and whenever we encounter it.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“First I must say good morning and thank you and how did you sleep. Before I bombard him with information, I must first speak well to him.”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

“As Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel observes, “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”12”
― Hannah Anderson, All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment