You can survive on your own; you can grow strong on your own; you can prevail on your own; but you cannot become human on your own. Frederick Buechner More Quotes by Frederick Buechner More Quotes From Frederick Buechner When a man leaves home, he leaves behind some scrap of his heart. . . . It's the same with a place a man is going to. Only then he sends a scrap of his heart ahead. Frederick Buechner home heart men Vocation is the place where the world's greatest need and a person's greatest joy meet. Frederick Buechner joy world needs Almost nothing that makes any real difference can be proved. Frederick Buechner differences real We are in constant danger of being not actors in the drama of our lives but reactors, to go where the world takes us, to drift with whatever current happens to be running the strongest. Frederick Buechner actors running drama If our pain doesn't destroy us, it just might transform us into truly human beings at last. Frederick Buechner lasts pain might Like a house in the rain, books were havens of permanence and protection from whatever it was that as a child I needed protection from. Frederick Buechner rain book children In the Christian sense, love is not primarily an emotion but an act of the will. When Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, he is not telling us to love them in the sense of responding to them with a cozy emotional feeling. You can as well produce a cozy emotional feeling as you can a cough or sneeze. On the contrary, he is telling us to love our neighbors in the sense of being willing to work for their well-being even if it means sacrificing our well-being to that end. Frederick Buechner christian mean jesus In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints. Frederick Buechner flirting saint world Grace is something you can never get but only be given. Frederick Buechner given grace faith In New England, especially, [faith] is like sex. It's very personal. You don't bring it out and talk about it. Frederick Buechner new-england england sex I believe with the best of who I am in God, but I sometimes think if anybody would watch me and [they] didn't believe a damn thing, they would have a very hard time deciding which of us is which. Frederick Buechner hard-times believe thinking I was deeply influenced by an Episcopal laywoman named Agnes Sanford, who in her day was quite famous as a faith healer, which is a term I've always distrusted, because it conjures up charlatanry. She was not a charlatan. She was the real thing, and she had had remarkable healings. Frederick Buechner remarkable real healing Becoming a Christian was terribly helpful to me. I can't imagine finding my way without it. I think it can be very crucially important to ally yourself with some religion. Frederick Buechner important christian thinking I don't go to church all that regularly, and one reason I don't is very often when I go I am bored out of my wits. I find myself being addressed by preachers who, I assume, were led by some initial passion for Christ, for the truth, for God, for "the More." That's what got them there. But that has gotten buried under all the debris of having to run a church, of concerns. Frederick Buechner bored passion running I pray for people I love when they are sick. I pray that way. Frederick Buechner sick people way To believe in Christ is to give your heart to Christ, which means not to affirm things about Christ, but it's like what you mean when you say, "I believe in my friend." Frederick Buechner heart mean believe You hear as many things as you would imagine. I hear voices of people I loved once. I hear moments that took place. I hear silences. Frederick Buechner voice silence people The Jesus I follow is the peacemaker, is one who says forgive your enemies, who worries about the poor, who worries about the poorest of the poor instead of the richest of the rich. Frederick Buechner worry enemy jesus It's very easy in a way, horrible in some ways, but simply to give up the whole thing, to say, "Well, the hell with it, as far as I'm concerned life is pointless and [so] live the fullest, most successfully self-fulfilling life you can and let the rest go hang" - I've never reached that point in my life. Frederick Buechner giving-up self way I don't know that it makes any difference whether it's at this time or a hundred years before or a hundred years later. I think always it's a matter of simply listen[ing] to what is going on around you and in your own experience. Try to understand what's happening, or if not to understand it, at least to appreciate the reality of it. Frederick Buechner differences reality thinking
