Tongue-tied Quotes

“When we dare to learn how to pray and how to talk about the ways in which God has shown up in our lives, there’s a kind of grace that infuses the most ordinary moments of our lives – both personal and familial, and in our circle of friends or church. We don’t get there quickly – without a lot of stumbling, awkward moments, and regrets – but that’s what learning the art of talking about faith requires. Practice. It takes practice to learn how to be genuine and natural; to speak about when we’ve sensed the Spirit’s prompting, or felt convicted of dishonesty, or encouraged to be more courageous, or experienced something that defied explanation – something miraculous. We can learn to be truth-tellers – testifying in honest, authentic ways about what we’ve observed of God’s activity in the mundane and in the more spectacular events of our lives.”
― Sara Wenger Shenk, Tongue-tied: Learning the Lost Art of Talking About Faith

“Within a flattened world, we give ourselves to activism or business or family life or fantasy without any expectation of divine intervention. We rarely take time to imagine with our children or grandchildren how we might listen for God, respond to God’s call to action, anticipate God’s intervention, or give ourselves in service to the shalom vision of God for the world.”
― Sara Wenger Shenk, Tongue-tied: Learning the Lost Art of Talking About Faith

“And so I come somewhat trembling to this … book project – because what I offer may sound like an unfair critique. I believe, even so, that I, and every one of us, should reflect on the language we reflexively use in order to become more aware of words and phrases that sound out of touch with reality, maybe misunderstood, or worse, maybe dishonest and even harmful.”
― Sara Wenger Shenk, Tongue-tied: Learning the Lost Art of Talking About Faith

“Learning to love God is all about learning to trust God… Even if we have faith that ultimately the love of God will win over all that is loveless, inhumane, life-destroying, and fouled up, any honest talk about God will need to contend with betrayal, failure, disappointment, and defeat. Faith, and the language we use to describe faith, will be worth learning only if it is forged in a fire that burns out all that is false and dehumanizing; a fire that requires honest reckoning with suffering, sin, and evil.”
― Sara Wenger Shenk, Tongue-tied: Learning the Lost Art of Talking About Faith