The trouble with really seeing and really hearing is that then we really have to do something about what we have seen and heard. Frederick Buechner More Quotes by Frederick Buechner More Quotes From Frederick Buechner The preaching is part of the reason I don't go to church. Plus, I don't know, it was never part of my tradition. Frederick Buechner tradition church reason Pray anyway. Who knows what God can do through your prayer? Frederick Buechner praying prayer knows If what makes you happy is going out and living it up and spending all your money on wine, women, and song, the world doesn't need that. But on the other hand, if you give your life to good works - you go and work in a leper colony and it doesn't make you happy - the chances are you're not doing it very well. Frederick Buechner wine song hands What makes me a believer is that from time to time, going back almost as far as my memory will go back, there have been glimpses I've had. Sometimes literally a glimpse which made me suspect the presence of something extraordinary and beyond the realm of the immediate. That's what I think a lot of what my writing has been, my preaching has been - trying to listen to that voice again, to see those moments again. Frederick Buechner writing memories thinking Preaching and writing - it's the same. Whether I'm writing to speak or writing to be read in a book, it's the same thing. Frederick Buechner speak writing book I don't know how to save my own life, so anything they've found in what I've written that saved theirs - I can't take responsibility for it. Frederick Buechner know-how responsibility found If you are going to proclaim the Christian faith, speak about those dimensions of it which you['ve] had some experience with. Frederick Buechner dimensions speak christian I say, “You may be right, but don’t knock it until you’re tried it. Don’t say, ‘I think it’s worthless; therefore I’m not going to spend any time looking into myself the way one who prays does.'” Maybe that’s an even worse mistake than praying might be. Frederick Buechner doe mistake might I'm a hopeless prayer. I think somewhere in there I spend a great deal of time at it. Frederick Buechner hopeless praying thinking No words come easily to my lips. I think ultimately - what I like to think is that I'm in some sense hearing the mystery itself. Frederick Buechner lips hearing thinking I've written a lot of autobiography, which also involved listening. Frederick Buechner involved autobiography listening I'm trying to listen to my past, listen to what's most deeply going on inside myself, my creative set of fictional characters, a fictional world - to listen to that world, to search. Frederick Buechner creative character past I don't think Christ would give a hoot whether you mentioned Christ to them or not. What matters - I'm speaking arrogantly and absurdly - to him is, are you living the kind of life that I embodied? Whether you believe in Christ or don't, who cares? Frederick Buechner what-matters believe thinking People will buy snake oil from anybody who seems to be selling it in a persuasive way. Frederick Buechner snakes oil people I am such a person of words. I've spent so much of my life trying to get it right, say it right, say it eloquently, say it truthfully, say it honestly, that when I hear it said in ways that none of those adverbs would describe I find myself so repelled that it almost shuts my mind off. Frederick Buechner mind trying way For some people, going to church is going home. In a very profound sense, I would say the same thing. Home is where Christ is. Frederick Buechner home profound people What gets me back to church, I think, is thinking maybe this time that question "Is it true?" will be answered, not just in terms of somebody saying, "Yes, it's true," but something will happen in a sermon or maybe shuffling up to the Eucharist, or in the old lady who's sitting beside me with a Bible - maybe something will happen which will show me that it's true. So I go back thinking, maybe this time I'll be lucky. Frederick Buechner saying-yes church thinking My prayer is spasmodic, occasional, desperate. It has a great deal to do with my children's physical well-being - that when they're traveling in the air the plane not crash, things like that. Frederick Buechner prayer air children I don't want to give the impression that I'm a great Bible reader. I don't sit down every day and read for an hour through the Bible. But I really do read it with a great deal of pleasure... which is the last thing I would have suspected. So I read it sometimes as a devotional, but really more, not for fun, but because it's fascinating. Frederick Buechner want fun giving
