I've Seen the End of You Quotes

“Life is a series of beautiful moments interspersed by great trials. The trick to being happy is to learn to have beautiful moments during the trials. Faith isn’t a belief that God will spare you from problems; it is a belief that he’s still God and will carry you through those problems.”
― W. Lee Warren, I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know

“The reason Jesus stopped in the garden to pray, to ask for a different outcome, even though he knew the answer already, was because the purpose of prayer isn’t to bend God’s will to ours. The purpose of prayer is to bend us to God’s will. Jesus was showing us that it’s a good thing—in fact, sometimes it’s the only thing we have—to stop even when things seem hopeless and remember that it’s not hopeless to God. He’s got a plan, even when it’s not obvious to us or when it’s not the plan we would choose.”
― W. Lee Warren, I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know

“It’s not your job to understand why things happen. It’s your job to make the biggest difference you can in spite of what happens.”
― W. Lee Warren, I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know

“Faith doesn’t keep us from having problems. It just gives a clearer view of how God is responding to them. Doubt is not fatal if we recognize it for what it is: a smudge on the lens. When we realize that, wipe it clear, and put the glasses back on, we’ll be okay. The things we think we know are more like cataracts. They can obscure and blind us to the truth of God’s work around us that is plain to see when our eyes are healthy.”
― W. Lee Warren, I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know

“But I have learned that doubt is not the enemy of faith. The enemy of faith is often the things we think we know.”
― W. Lee Warren, I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know

“If you place your faith in a benevolent universe, the stalwart physician, your indefatigable spirit, or the strength and resolve of your spouse, then randomness or fatigue or weakness or age will eventually reveal the transience and mutability of such trust.”
― W. Lee Warren, I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know

“If your life has been relatively pain-free up to this point, you are very blessed, and this book may seem somewhat abstract to you. But make no mistake: trouble is coming.”
― W. Lee Warren, I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know

“David Oliver-Smith is a neurosurgeon in Pittsburgh who was one of my professors during residency. He took a special interest in my success and was incredibly good to me during those tough years. Once, he came into the hospital on Thanksgiving Day to take my beeper and cover for me long enough to allow me to go home and have dinner with my family, an incredible act of kindness from a staff doctor toward a lowly resident.”
― W. Lee Warren, I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know

“Melius anceps remedium quam nullum (“It is better to do something than nothing”),”
― W. Lee Warren, I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know

“Once I’ve got the head secured, I always place my hands on the scalp for a second and look down at the patient. It’s my moment of silence, of acknowledging that the thing I’m about to do is bigger than I am. The place I’m going is holy, and the job I’m doing is sacred and dangerous and beautiful and delicately violent. I don’t want to cross into that world without reminding myself there are things I can’t control in there. I need help.”
― W. Lee Warren, I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know

“dogmatic belief is not life sustaining. Only grace is worth believing in.”
― W. Lee Warren, I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know

“the most misquoted and misunderstood verses of the Bible. It does not say that God makes everything good for people who believe in him—” “Yes, it does,” I said, interrupting. “My dad quoted that verse to me every time I lost a game or a girl broke up with me. It says that all things work together for good for those that love the Lord.” Pastor Jon smiled softly and shook his head. “That’s almost what it says, yes. But you’re ignoring the context and the following verses. Go read it and pay attention to what it’s really saying, because that verse is one of the only reasons I didn’t kill myself after my son died. If I believed that the Bible says everything works out for good all the time, I would know it wasn’t true and I would throw this cross out and get another job. But that’s not what it says. It says if we love the Lord, he will”
― W. Lee Warren, I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know

“A few years ago I heard that a girl I knew from my hometown of Broken Bow, Oklahoma, had lost her husband to a brain tumor. They were high school sweethearts, prom king and queen, the perfect love story. His death devastated her, and her life fell apart for a while.
But one day while in Broken Bow to visit my family, I happened to bump into her. I met her new husband and saw pictures of their two lovely kids. She'd found happiness and had a nice life.
What about all those prayers for her first husband? The pleading and begging for God to save him while the tumor marched through him and put him in the ground? What if any of those prayers had been answered positively?
Two children would not exist.”
― W. Lee Warren, I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know