Same Lake, Different Boat Quotes

“Think about the "already-not-yet-ness" of the kingdom being reflected along a spectrum of expressions of restoration. Healing is the fullest and most present expression of restoration, hope is the most future-oriented expression, and help is in the continuum in between.”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“We have to go into any place of need expecting to learn from the people, expecting to be changed by the people, expecting to be a real servant of the people.... You have got to get rid of the pity and respect the people you're trying to help. Or you're really not going to be of any help.`3”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“If we are honest, typically we are less accepting of unique behaviors or diverse expressions of praise in a worship service than we ought to be. When a person with an intellectual disability sings loudly and off-key, is that a disruption or an expression of adoration? When an individual with obsessive behaviors cannot stop repetitively whispering, is that just cause for asking them to leave the sanctuary? The human soul was designed to worship.”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“If church leaders are not consistently preaching, promoting, and practicing justice, it will be nearly impossible for laypersons to encourage congregational change from within the body of Christ.”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“What is your covenant with existence? Is it to find your life, only to lose it? Or is it to lose your life, only to find it? This is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith: that losing is the only pathway to finding. And loss always involves a sense of grief, even when it reveals the road to true freedom and wholeness.”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“it was as if God was gently prying my white-knuckled fingers off the steering wheel of my life until I had nothing to hold onto-except for God himself.”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“Mercy is a voluntary sorrow which enjoins itself to the suffering of another. -St. Gregory of Nyssa”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“Being instruments of the kingdom of God in this world means yielding to the agenda of the King, not following our own romantic notions of what that should look like. "A person can sow the seed, but the kingdom itself is God's deed."6 Our obligation is to obedience; God is responsible for the outcomes.”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“a deeply personal form of service needs to define the church's expression of the gospel to others.
Keeping the manifestations of mercy personal helps prevent us from operating from a position of power. Recall that
Jesus "made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant." If the One who possesses all power and authority was willing to set that aside to relate to us personally, how can we do any less for others?”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“Mercy also requires intentionally identifying with another in a personal relationship, one that is based upon mutual respect. Until the personal dimension of mercy is experienced, it is not yet mercy in its fullest expression. If our churches stay at the level of cheerful volunteerism through engaged programming, it is still possible to avoid genuine relationship. "Mercy is a voluntary sorrow which enjoins itself to the suffering of another." Not others in general-but another-a single, individual, unique, and precious person.”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“One who expresses genuine mercy is one who has experienced genuine grace. To experience genuine grace is to be conscious of our own brokenness, our helplessness, our utter inability to meet our greatest needs-and our absolute dependence on God who voluntarily engages us in a personal way. Only when we have come to the end of ourselves can we begin to find the One who empowers us to show genuine mercy to others.
A church that is characterized by mercy is a church whose service to others is voluntary, engaged, and personal. In other words, it is safe for the recipient. Because mercy is voluntary, the one who is on the receiving end of mercy knows that those
who engage him are not doing so under coercion, but by choice.”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“Since every church is filled with sinners, any congregation will have room for improvement in the arena of justice. However, one of the key characteristics of a church that operates as a hospital for sinners is that it will demonstrate hospitality-the love of a stranger-through continually learning
how to grow in exercising justice. In doing so, it will learn to identify and oppose all forms of active oppression, and be vigilantly self-reflective and repentant about passive oppression in its midst. The just church is an accessible hospital for sinners, open to all without regard to degree of need or ability to repay.”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“Recall that along the spectrum of restoration, healing is the most presently experienced reality of the coming of the
kingdom. Healing implies a reversal of circumstances. But when reversal is not experienced, does that mean that the kingdom is not present even in part? When the power of the King is not felt through healing, it is still found through help. While healing implies restoration through reversal, help implies restoration through assistance. In practical terms, help is what stems the tide of a free fall into despair that can be experienced through brokenness. While help may not reverse the circumstances experienced, it can break the downward spiral of negativity that we all experience when faced with daunting challenges.”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“If healing is the closest form of the already-ness of the coming of the kingdom of God, and if help moves farther down the spectrum toward the not-yet-ness of the kingdom of God, then hope points us most clearly to the ultimate consummation of the kingdom of God in the future. Healing implies reversal, help implies assistance, and hope implies reminding. Remember that the coming of the kingdom is also a future event. It is the looking forward to the consummation of all things. When healing is not in the will of God's providence, and help is not enough-and it never will be in this lifetime-then hope is always a present reality.”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability

“To spread the Kingdom of God is more than simply winning people to Christ. It is also working for the healing of persons, families, relationships and nations; it is doing deeds of mercy and justice. -Timothy J. Keller”
― Stephanie O. Hubach, Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability