“She was the kind of woman whose absolute support was freely and completely given, until it gave way like a saturated California hillside. Then it was mostly at the bottom with a car or two underneath. The final event that would cause the hillside to give way might be completely trivial — perhaps a robin …
Central as in Central Heating
“An accurate awareness of the other’s faults does not mean that you yourself are sinless. It is, rather, quite possibly an indication that you are the central problem” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 96).
Arriving Daily
“Pastoral snarls are like the mercies of God — they are new every morning” (Evangellyfish, p. 175).
Always Ready to Forgive
“But you can have a heart full of forgiveness, full to the brim, ready to overflow the moment repentance appears. Until that happens, there is no forgiveness. We need to distinguish forgiveness in principle and forgiveness accomplished” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 95).
Straight Out of the Carton
“But despite the untruths involved, they nevertheless made good copy, and the editors ate it all up with a spoon, straight out of the carton. One of those editors had read some Derrida in college, and so he was good with the idea of perspectives from every which direction, especially if it made good copy” …
Forgiveness as Transaction
“We cannot forgive those who are defiant, however much we might like to. Because forgiveness is a transaction, if someone steals your car, you can’t run down the street after them, yelling out your forgiveness” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 95).
Legally Speaking
“Not that they knew about it at the time, but Shattuck had pulled all their shirts up over their heads and rolled all their socks down, creating a little black wool bead around the tops of their expensive Italian shoes” (Evangellyfish, p. 164).
A Basic Character Trait
“Forgiveness comes from someone whose heart is disposed to kindness and tenderheartedness; we are therefore talking not merely about isolated acts of forgiveness, but also about a deep-rooted disposition to forgive. A forgiving heart is a character trait” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 94).
But Hardly Anybody Has Gray Eyes
“With that, Radavic swiveled his head and looked straight at Rourke with what he thought was a steely, gray-eyed gaze, like in those TV legal-office drama shows, at an especially tense moment when one of the handsome actors rivets another handsome actor with an unshakable and hardened resolve and says, ‘Dammit, Trevor, this is our …
Forgiveness in Marriage
“We must deal with the fact that marriage means marriage of a sinner to a sinner . . . in order to deal with sin rightly, we have to understand forgiveness, and anyone who wants to be married in this fallen world without understanding forgiveness is frankly out of his mind” (For a Glory and …