“Courage is good everywhere, but it is necessary here. If you are afraid of men and a slave to their opinion, go and do something else. Go and make shoes to fit them”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 59
No Real Understanding Without Humor
“Humor involves the perception of the true proportions of life. It is one of the most helpful qualities that the preacher can possess . . . But humor is something very different from frivolity”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 58
Bonds and Bond Levies
The school “still looked entirely serviceable, but Cody guessed that an ambitious superintendent had gotten a bond levy passed, and was now tormenting his prisoners at a swankier location”
Ecochondriacs, p. 98
Spreading It All Around
“‘Um,’ he said, trying to gather up his thoughts, which someone had grabbed and then kicked all over the parking lot. It was probably the devil, and he was doing a lot of kicking”
Ecochondriacs, p. 92
Look Out, Look Away
“No man ever yet thought whether he was preaching well without weakening his sermon”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 55
A Triple Whoa
“He kissed her back for about a second and a half, and then jumped the same way he had once jumped when a waiter had dropped a hot bowl of French onion soup in his lap. ‘Whoa,’ he said. Whoa, whoa, whoa. ‘’Yikes,’ he added”
Ecochondriacs, p. 92
Turned Up to Eleven
“’Any news?’ he said querulously. It sounded like someone was messing with his tremolo knob”
Ecochondriacs, p. 90
The Kind of Man to be Ordained
“We may set him apart from other men with what solemn ceremonies we may please, but he will be just like other men still, unless the power of the work to which he looks forward has entered into him during his careful preparation and made him different”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 50
Nobody Came to Watch You Meander
“The preacher must know where he is going”
Olford, Anointed Expository Preaching, p. 259
Don’t Ever Try to Build on Lies
“Son, I don’t want you to ever apologize to somebody just because they say to. If you owe them one, don’t make them ask. You should be there ahead of them. And if you don’t owe them one, then your apology is not anything with them. It is trying to put things back together on the foundation of a lie. And lies always collapse under any weight you try to put on them”
Ecochondriacs, p. 87