Pg. 38-If you aren’t telling a good story, nobody thinks you died too soon; they just think you died.
Pg. 60- I wonder…if when people say life is meaningless, what they really mean is their lives are meaningless.
Pg. 86-I like the part of the Bible that talks about God speaking the world into existence, as though everything we see and feel were sentences from his mouth, all the wet of the world his spit.
Pg. 88-So I started obeying a little. I’d feel God wanting me to hold my tongue, and I would. It didn’t feel natural at first; it felt fake, like I was being a character somebody else wanted me to be and not who I actually was; but if I held my tongue, the scene would play better, and I always felt better when it was done. I started feeling like a better character, and when you are a better character, your story gets better too...And when I learned to hold my tongue a bit, the Voice guided me from the defensive to the intentional. God wanted me to do things, to help people, to volunteer or write a letter or talk to my neighbor. Sometimes I’d do the thing God wanted, and the story always went well, of course; and sometimes I’d ignore it and watch television. But by this time I really came to believe the Voice was God, and God was trying to write a better story. And besides, nothing God wanted me to do was difficult. Until…(Little tease Here for people to get this book and read it)
Pg. 89-I told God no again, but he came back to me and asked me, if I really believed he could write a better story—and if I did, why didn’t I trust him?
Pg. 103-We knew it would end well, but you don’t feel that when you push a chracter into his story. You only feel what he is feeling at that moment.
Pg. 107-Perhaps one of the reasons I’ve avoided having a clear ambition is because the second you stand up and point toward a horizon, you realize how much there is to lose.
Pg. 113- It made me wonder if the reasons our lives seem so muddled is because we keep walking into scenes in which we, along with the people around us have no clear idea of what we want.
Pg. 118-There is a force resisting the beautiful things in the world, and too many of us are giving in.
Pg. 160-We teach our children good or bad stories, what is worth living for and what is worth dying for, what is worth pursuing, and the dignity with which a character engages his own narrative.
Pg. 167-I asked Bob what was the key to living such agreat story, and Bob seemed uncomfortable with the idea he was anything special. But he wanted to answer my question, so he thought about it and said he didn’t think we should be afraid to embrace whimsy. I asked him what he meant by whimsy, and he struggled to define it. He said it’s that nagging idea that life could be magical; it could be special if we were only willing to take a few risks.
Pg. 180-“You didn’t think joy could change a person, did you? Joy is what you feel when the conflict is over. But it’s conflict that changes a person.”
Pg. 186-Part of me wonders if our stories aren’t being stolen by the easy life.
Pg. 204-Paul says Jesus is the hope that will not disappoint. I find that comforting. That helps me get through the day, to be honest. It even makes me content somehow. Maybe that’s what Paul meant when he said he’d learned the secret of contentment.
Pg 204, 205-I worshiped at the altar of romantic completion…I think that’s why so many couples fight, because they want their partners to validate them and affirm them, and if they don’t get that, they feel as though they’re going to die. And so they lash out. But it’s a terrible thing to wake up and realize the person you just finished crucifying wasn’t Jesus.
Pg. 206-When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are. And when you stop expecting material possessions to complet you, you’d be surprised at how much pleasure you get in material possessions. And when you stop expecting God to end all your troubles, you’d be surprise how much you like spending time with God.
Pg 208, 209-When we look back on our lives, what we will remember are the crazy things we did, the times we worked harder to make a day stand out.
Pg. 214-I think God wanted his people to build altars for their sake, something that would help them remember, something they could look back on and remember the time when they were rescued, or they were given grace.
Pg. 236-A good storyteller doesn’t just tell a better story, though. He invites other people into the story with him, giving them a better story too.
Pg. 246, 247-It’s interesting that in the Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes, the only practical advice given about living a meaningful life is to find a job you like, enjoy marriage, and obey God. It’s as though God is saying, Write a good story, take somebody with you, and let me help.
Pg 247-I don’t ever want to go back to believing life is meaningless…I wish people who struggle against dark thoughts would risk their hopes on living a good story.
