When hints of sadness creep into our soul, we must not flee into happy or distracting thoughts. Pondering the sadness until it becomes overwhelming can lead us to deep change in the direction of our being from self-preservation to grateful worship. Larry Crabb More Quotes by Larry Crabb More Quotes From Larry Crabb We have made a terrible mistake! For most of this century we have wrongly defined soul wounds as psychological disorders and delegated their treatment to trained specialists. Damaged psyches aren't the problem. The problem is disconnected souls. What we need is connection. What we need is a healing community. Larry Crabb psych healing mistake The real power in helping somebody to be transformed is not to do something to them but to join with them. Larry Crabb transformed real helping Shattered dreams are never random. They are always a piece in a larger puzzle, a chapter in a larger story. The Holy Spirit uses the pain of shattered dreams to help us discover our desire for God, to help us begin dreaming the highest dream. They are ordained opportunities for the Spirit to awaken, then to satisfy our highest dream. Larry Crabb pain dream opportunity We cannot count on God to arrange what happens in our lives in ways that will make us feel good.We can, however, count on God to patiently remove all the obstacles to our enjoyment of Him. He is committed to our joy, and we can depend on Him to give us enough of a taste of that joy and enough hope that the best is still ahead to keep us going in spite of how much pain continues to plague our hearts. Larry Crabb pain heart giving We were designed to love and when we do, something good develops inside. We feel clean, rich, whole. Even better, we become less concerned with how we feel and more concerned with the lives of others. Larry Crabb clean rich feels God is always working to make His children aware of a dream that remains alive beneath the rubble of every shattered dream, a new dream that when realized will release a new song, sung with tears, till God wipes them away and we sing with nothing but joy in our hearts. Larry Crabb dream song children The root of all our personal and emotional difficulties is a lack of togetherness... I therefore believe that the surest route to overcoming problems and becoming the people we were meant to be is reconnecting with God and with our community. Larry Crabb emotional roots believe Many of us place top priority not on becoming Christ like in the middle of our problems but on finding happiness.... I must firmly and consciously by an act of my will reject the goal of becoming happy and adopt the goal of becoming more like the Lord. Larry Crabb finding-happiness priorities goal The core problem is not that we are too passionate about bad things, but that we are not passionate enough Larry Crabb passionate problem enough There’s never a moment in all our lives, from the day we trusted Christ till the day we see Him, when God is not longing to bless us. At every moment, in every circumstance, God is doing us good. He never stops. It gives Him too much pleasure. God is not waiting to bless us after our troubles end. He is blessing us right now, in and through those troubles. At this exact moment, He is giving us what He thinks is good. Larry Crabb blessing giving thinking When spiritual friends share their stories, the others listen without working. They rest. There’s nothing to fix, nothing to improve. A spiritual community feels undisturbed quiet as they listen, certainly burdened . . . but still resting in the knowledge that the life within, the passion for holiness, is indestructible. It needs only to be nourished and released. Larry Crabb passion community spiritual The more clearly we recognize how deep our commitment to self-protection operates in our relational style and the more courageously we face the ugliness of protecting ourselves rather than loving others, the more we'll shift our direction. Larry Crabb style self commitment Following Christ is a wild adventure full or risk, frustration, excitement, and setbacks. It is not an evening stroll in a planned community along a well-manicured path. Larry Crabb following-christ frustration adventure The marriage relationship is one of God's creations for building up people. It gives husbands and wives the chance to minister to an immortal human being in a uniquely intimate fashion. To enjoy the meaningfulness of marriage, then, requires a once-made but ongoing commitment of mutual ministry to our mates and the more we seize them, the more meaning our marriage will have. Larry Crabb fashion husband commitment The goal of our sanctification is that we place Christ on display in the way we love others. Larry Crabb goal way christ I find it much easier to counsel than to be counseled, to reach out to a friend in my small group who is feeling insercure than to reveal my own inseurity. The truth is we don't much like being dependent. We don't enjoy admitting how desperately we long for someone's kindness and involvement. It's so humbling. Larry Crabb kindness feelings long We can't always make life work. But we can always draw near to God. There is a different way to approach our problems. There is a NEW WAY to live. Larry Crabb way-to-live different problem The problem sincere Christians have with God often comes down to a wrong understanding of what this life is meant to provide. Larry Crabb understanding problem christian A vision we give to others of who and what they could become has power when it echoes what the spirit has already spoken into their souls. Larry Crabb echoes leadership giving Godly people... nobly endure hard things. They know that their existence is meaningful and that they are destined for unlimited pleasure at the deepest level in heaven. Because they keenly feel that nothing now quite meets the standards of their longing souls, the quiet but deeply throbbing ache within them drives them not to compalint, but to anticipation and further yieldedness. Larry Crabb godly meaningful people
