Karl Forehand > Quotes

“Bypassing the issue does not solve the root causes of that issue, it just makes a person feel better until the issue reappears in different ways or in different parts of the body.”
― Karl Forehand, The Tea Shop

“It’s time to be wild again. Take a prophet or poet on the journey and float out into the mystic. Dive deep into the mysteries of life and let yourself sink long enough to know what can only be imagined, not defined. Take a step out into the desert with those that have ventured there and find mystery and paradox and nuance, not certainty and doctrine.”
― Karl Forehand, Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity

“Leaning into our pain not only helps us solve our issues, it also helps us learn about them. Some things we can’t solve magically and some of them, if understood, can become strengths instead of weaknesses.”
― Karl Forehand, Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity

“As I start another new day, I have heard the bird sing. His song leads me out into the yard where I catch a glimpse of one of the creatures doing its thing. I peer down at the soil, and just for a moment, my mind can almost comprehend the universal and cataclysmic dance of the universe. That’s where I find humility these days—that’s where I find truth—it’s where I draw energy—it’s where I find life!”
― Karl Forehand, Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity

“I am learning to “sit” with problems and own them instead of trying to bypass them. I am learning to empathize with people instead of trying to find a quick solution to their issues.”
― Karl Forehand, The Tea Shop

“I long to see a world of people that imagine how they will treat each other before they consider how exceptional they are.”
― Karl Forehand, The Tea Shop

“The nature of the adventure is that we often find something different than what we were searching for.”
― Karl Forehand, The Tea Shop

“When we are willing to do the hard work of going deeper, we give
ourselves the very real possibility to live vibrant and authentic lives.”
― Karl Forehand, Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity

“Trying harder often made it worse. This can also be true of church an.d religion”
― Karl Forehand, Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father's Heart

“If we could know the nature of our fear and where it originates, maybe
we could stop shaming ourselves for being afraid and find a way forward.”
― Karl Forehand, Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity

“God is experienced most vividly in relationship.”
― Karl Forehand, The Tea Shop

“According the Jesus' life and work, the second half of human history was supposed to be characterized by love, mercy, and grace.”
― Karl Forehand

“If I am to be authentic, I can only say what I understand to be true and hope we can journey together toward the truth.”
― Karl Forehand, Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father's Heart

“Could it be that we are too concerned with angelic speech and flawless, proven methods and we forgot that what matters more than anything is other-centered, self-giving love?”
― Karl Forehand, The Tea Shop

“. Could it be true that knowing always requires some level of unknowing? When we give up our death grip on certainty, we open the door expanding our understanding and deepening our consciousness. I know it is scary, but good adventures tend to be like that.”
― Karl Forehand, The Tea Shop

“Be what you believe and argue less, love your neighbor, bless those who persecute you, be at peace with all people - that is what saves the world!”
― Karl Forehand, The Tea Shop

“When parents orchestrate their children's circumstances, they produce immature adults.”
― Karl Forehand, Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father's Heart

“I am realizing, though, that it takes practice to stay present.”
― Karl Forehand, The Tea Shop

“As I have freed myself from the appraisal of others, this has freed me from needing to judge others and allowed me to be more uncertain, to see things from other points of view.”
― Karl Forehand, Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father's Heart

“My belief is in question because it leads to a conclusion that God is worse than me.”
― Karl Forehand, Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father's Heart

“We were created from relationship for relationship, invited to experience this other-centered, self-giving love not only with God but also with each other.”
― Karl Forehand, Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father's Heart

“The tyranny of the urgent shouts down any reasoning that would slow it down from getting where it’s going (even if it doesn’t know for sure
where it is headed at the time).”
― Karl Forehand, Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity

“We can’t go on a journey of discovery where everything is as we expect.”
― Karl Forehand, Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity

“We assume that God is doing something he does not want to do. If we assume that we are originally bad, and he cannot hardly stand to look at us, then it is almost like something or someone must talk him into loving us.”
― Karl Forehand, Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father's Heart

“Religion seems to satisfy a basic longing that all of us have. To me, religion had always been about finding a road to God, reestablishing a relationship.”
― Karl Forehand, Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father's Heart

“Spiritual bypassing
separates us from our humanity and all its messiness and struggles
and pain and It makes us feel good briefly.”
― Karl Forehand, Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity

“Being with the Divine may be less like taking a class and more like taking a break. It is certainly learning to be still and go within without any intentions or expectations. It’s not an emotional high that fades away, it is something I experience that was already a part of me. It’s less like taking a trip and more like coming home. Being with the Divine in me is loving in its truest sense. I feel the compassion, mercy and grace deeply—it changes me from within. Being where I am means being where God already is. Being who I am is recognizing that I already possess this love and I become what I have always been—a unique imprint of the Divine.”
― Karl Forehand, Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity

“...wouldn’t God be more interested in being with the less favored child than the one that already has it figured out?”
― Karl Forehand, The Tea Shop

“Too much of my drive was about accomplishment and doing at the
cost of becoming. I did very well with the “you can do anything”
mantra because I believed it. But it was never enough—I never hit the
target, I never arrived at home and I never really found the peace my
heart was seeking.”
― Karl Forehand, Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity

“Jesus stressed that God does not do drone strikes on people just because they ignore or offend him.”
― Karl Forehand, Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father's Heart