Quotes about Understanding

There are many ideas within Christian spirituality that contradict the facts of reality as I understand them. A statement like this offends some Christians because they believe if aspects of their faith do not obey the facts of reality, they are not true. But I think there are all sorts of things our hearts believe that don't make any sense to our heads.

A person could read the Bible, not to become smart, but rather to feel that they are not alone, that somebody understands them and love them enough to speak to them, on purpose, in a way that makes a person feel human.

I get this feeling sometimes that after the world ends, when God destroys all our buildings and our flags, we will wish we had seen everybody as equal, that we had eaten dinner with prostitutes, held them in our arms, opened up spare rooms for them, and loved them and learned from them.

We do not live this life to build a monument to ourselves, but to pass our understanding of life on to those who come behind us so that their stories can be even more meaningful than ours.

If you don't love somebody, it gets annoying when they tell you what to do or what to feel. When you love them you get pleasure from their pleasure, and it makes it easy to serve. I didn't love God because I didn't know God.

The explanatory paragraph is a great way to accomplish both.

In the churches I used to go to, I felt like I didn't fit in... I was accepted but not understood. There was room at the table for me, but I was not part of the family.

Empathetic statements start with words like, "We understand how it feels to..." or "Nobody should have to experience..." or "Like you, we are frustrated by..." or, in the case of one Toyota commercial inviting Toyota owners to engage their local Toyota service center, simply, "We care about your Toyota".

We're all amateurs when it comes to love and relationships.

The most powerful tool we can use to organize information so people don't have to burn very many calories is story.

Why? Because the human brain, no matter what region of the world it comes from, is drawn toward clarity and away from confusion.

means seeing both sides of the story and working towards a mutually beneficial situation for everyone.