Kirk Byron Jones > Quotes

“By the way, by using the very same letters, “listen” spells “silent.”
― Kirk Byron Jones, Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace, and Joy

“This is the splendid and memorable wisdom of legendary sage Howard Thurman, who once advised someone seeking vocational guidance, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive” (Gil Bailie, Violence Unveiled, [New York: Crossroad, xv]). Yielding to your sacred inner flame is your best offering to the world.”
― Kirk Byron Jones, Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace, and Joy

“No matter how glorious the past, choosing to live there is choosing to live in a tomb. Live in New Life!”
― Kirk Byron Jones, GRACE SPARKS: Short Reflections to Encourage, Enlighten, and Energize Your Spirit

“The benefits of playfulness may not be immediately noticeable, but they are undeniable. Here are five ways I see playfulness abetting ministry: 1. Freshness. When one does so many of the same things over and over again, I don’t care what those things are, boredom can set in. Ministry is not immune to this. The only way to remain fresh for the long haul is to be intentional about learning new things in familiar tasks. An experimental disposition is at the heart of playfulness. Playfulness primes us to be alert and creative, ever open to novelty and new growth. 2. Dexterity. Playfulness resists rigidness. In a spirit of play, we are more open to the Spirit’s play of reforming and transforming—making all things new. 3. Resilience. No one is immune to a broken spirit and a broken heart. Yet, as we become more accustomed to living energized and inspired, we are less likely to have regular extended periods of feeling down. 4. Boldness. Fear keeps us aiming low in ministry or not aiming at all. The unsung antidote for fear is curiosity. Become interested in that which you fear, and suddenly, fear is melted away. Playfulness is a way to cultivate and satisfy curiosity. 5. Contagiousness. To be playful is to be lighthearted. Light is warming and attractive. As we let our lights shine bright in the spirit of ministry as holy play—exploration, creation, and celebration—chances are, we will spend less time searching for members and more time wondering where all of these people came from.”
― Kirk Byron Jones, Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace, and Joy

“When all others have stopped, God is still applauding you.”
― Kirk Byron Jones, Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace, and Joy

“Remember, the sweetest surrender of all is to give yourself over to that which is deeply and spiritually calling you. Do not be afraid to give lavish time, energy, attention, and passion to what you love. Therein is Holy Fire.”
― Kirk Byron Jones, Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace, and Joy

“Overholding the vision, no matter how applaudable the vision may be, makes us prone to missing the vision God inspires within others for mission and witness. Moreover, unconsciously subjugating the vision of others leads to ministry with a heavy hand, the goal being to implant our vision of faithfulness on others.”
― Kirk Byron Jones, Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace, and Joy

“Rosa Parks personified “unshouted courage” in her unpretentious act of civil disobedience on a Montgomery bus over fifty years ago and the calm, though deliberate, manner in which she recalled her act in countless interviews thereafter. What a stunning contrast to Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Malcolm X’s volcanic vocal pronouncements. Rosa Parks reminds us that courage comes in many shapes, sizes, and voices, even a voice just above a whisper. The question is not will you or I be courageous like Rosa Parks or any of the sung and unsung champions of the civil rights movement, but will we be true to our convictions in ways that are true to who we are? Will I listen to and own my unique courageous voice? Will you?”
― Kirk Byron Jones, Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace, and Joy

“In a time of famine typified by too many words with too much noise in them, we could use fewer words with more silence in them. This is a difficult concept to grasp, but you know it when you hear it. Some of the most effective language in the world leads you up to the brink of silence and leaves you there, with the soft surf of the unsayable lapping at your feet.”
― Kirk Byron Jones, Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace, and Joy

“One such moment occurred some years ago when I read the following words in Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl: We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way. ([New York: Washington Square Press, 1959], 86)”
― Kirk Byron Jones, Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace, and Joy

“This is the point for me now, that when I am reading I am not just being informed and pleasured; I am being made privy to sides and dimensions of God that others have experienced via multifarious adventures, experiences, ideas, and theories. Reading grants us ready and easy (even more so these days with the arrival of smartphones and e-book readers) access to the wild wonder of it all. Reading is nothing to stop, dismiss, or do sparingly, or do just to get up a sermon. Reading is a way to play, to enter the play of God through others, dead and alive, in our world and beyond it.”
― Kirk Byron Jones, Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace, and Joy

“There are lessons in life such as patience, resilience, and deep peace apart from what may or may not be happening that cannot be learned on the mountaintop, no matter how high the mountain. Certain precious gems of life may be found only in the low places, places where, because God is everywhere, God is, as much as God is anywhere else.”
― Kirk Byron Jones, Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace, and Joy

“Poetry makes us more observant, more compassionate, empathetic. [It] is our best means of communicating with each other, of touching not only the intellect but the heart. [It] is the best repository for our most humane, ethical and just feelings. We can be made to experience the world, interior lives of other human beings, by reading poetry. (Mary Loftus, “Her Calling,” Emory Magazine, Autumn 2012, 25)”
― Kirk Byron Jones, Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace, and Joy