. . . [T]o live not with hands clenched to grasp, to strike, to hold tight to a life that is always slipping away the more tightly we hold it, but . . . to live with the hands stretched out both to give and receive with gladness. Frederick Buechner More Quotes by Frederick Buechner More Quotes From Frederick Buechner God himself does not give answers. He gives himself. Frederick Buechner answers doe giving To remember the past is to see that we are here today by grace, that we have survived as a gift. Frederick Buechner grace today past By and large a good rule for finding out is this: the kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work a) that you need most to do and b) the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you've presumably met requirement a), but if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, the chances are you've missed requirement b). Frederick Buechner done writing needs Faith is the assurance that the best and holiest dream is true after all. Frederick Buechner assurance dream It is as impossible for man to demonstrate the existence of God as it would be for even Sherlock Holmes to demonstrate the existence of Arthur Conan Doyle. Frederick Buechner would-be impossible men Avarice, greed, concupiscence and so forth are all based on the mathematical truism that the more you get, the more you have. The remark of that it is more blessed to give than to receive is based on the human truth that the more you give away in love, the more you are. It is not just for the sake of other people that tells us to give rather than get, but for our own sakes too. Frederick Buechner blessed giving people The first ministers were the twelve disciples. There is no evidence that Jesus chose them because they are brighter or nicer than other people. Their sole qualification seems to have been their initial willingness to rise to their feet when Jesus said, "Follow me." Frederick Buechner feet people jesus Laugh till you weep. Weep till there's nothing left but to laugh at your weeping. In the end it's all one. Frederick Buechner ends inspiring laughing We have God's joy in our blood. Frederick Buechner joy blood The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed by the holy power that life itself comes from. You can survive on your own. You can grow strong on your own. You can even prevail on your own. But you cannot become human on your own. Frederick Buechner steel strong reality The best moments any of us have as human beings are those moments when for a little while it is possible to escape the squirrel-cage of being me into the landscape of being us. Frederick Buechner squirrels landscape littles Think of these pages as graffiti maybe, and where I have scratched up in a public place my longings and loves, my grievances and indecencies, be reminded in private of your own. In that way, at least, we can hold a kind of converse. Frederick Buechner age love thinking Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me. To see reality-not as we expect it to be but as it is-is to see that unless we live for each other and in and through each other, we do not really live very satisfactorily; that there can really be life only where there really is, in just this sense, love. Frederick Buechner love romantic life Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom, the good thief said from his cross (Luke 23:42). There are perhaps no more human words in all of Scripture, no prayer we can pray so well. Frederick Buechner thieves prayer jesus We learn to praise God not by paying compliments but by paying attention. Frederick Buechner praise attention compliment Love yourself not in some egocentric, self-serving sense but love yourself the way you would love your friend in the sense of taking care of yourself, nourishing yourself, trying to understand, comfort, and strengthen yourself. Frederick Buechner self love-you trying The sacred moments, the moments of miracle, are often the everyday moments. Frederick Buechner sacred miracle everyday What makes you, in the deepest sense of the word, happy? That's what you should be doing, if the other part is also met - if it is something the world needs. Frederick Buechner should world needs At least to look back over their own lives, as I have looked back over mine, for certain themes and patterns and signals that are so easy to miss when you're caught up in the process of living them. If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think he speaks to us largely through what happens to us, so listen to what has happened to you-for the sound, above all else, of his voice. Frederick Buechner voice missing thinking He also said we should carve in the year and place where I was born, but I said no. As a man dies many times before he's dead, so does he wend from birth to birth until, by grace, he comes alive at last. Frederick Buechner grace men years
