Nathan Foster > Quotes

“He treats the person as if they were fully whole.
We become what others expect us to be. Dad expected me to get better and even assumed I would have something helpful to say. Funny how we rise and fall to the assumptions of others.”
― Nathan Foster, Wisdom Chaser: Finding My Father at 14,000 Feet

“Arrogance and a teachable spirit are mutually exclusive.”
― Nathan Foster, The Making of an Ordinary Saint: My Journey from Frustration to Joy with the Spiritual Disciplines

“If the spiritual life doesn’t lead us to freedom and grace, then we’ve probably missed the point.”
― Nathan Foster, The Making of an Ordinary Saint: My Journey from Frustration to Joy with the Spiritual Disciplines

“What people so desperately need today is space, stillness and attentiveness," he said. "And what so many churches major in are busyness, hurry and noise. We keep people constantly distracted. Earnest folks who are searching for a deep, intimate life with God end up being put on some church committee! If, instead, we carefully taught people how to create space in their lives and how to listen attentively, we would then incline their hearts toward God. As it is, we often do almost everything and anything but that.”
― Nathan Foster, Wisdom Chaser: Finding My Father at 14,000 Feet

“We live in a culture that defines our value by what we accomplish, what we own, and how we look. I’m struck with the awareness that for the first time in the history of human existence, the majority of our social contact comes in the form of someone trying to sell us something. Is it just a coincidence that the basic message of the most dominant voice in our society is that we are in some way lacking?”
― Nathan Foster, The Making of an Ordinary Saint: My Journey from Frustration to Joy with the Spiritual Disciplines

“The forgotten art of focusing on one task at a time is a treasure, a joy, and the gateway to a life of prayer.”
― Nathan Foster, The Making of an Ordinary Saint: My Journey from Frustration to Joy with the Spiritual Disciplines

“We need to understand that Jesus is a thinker, that this is not a dirty word but an essential work, and that his other attributes do not preclude thought, but only ensure that he is certainly the greatest thinker of the human race: “the most intelligent person who ever lived on earth.” Dallas Willard”
― Nathan Foster, The Making of an Ordinary Saint: My Journey from Frustration to Joy with the Spiritual Disciplines

“Drafting is a perfect metaphor for community. The gift of being carried by others contrasted with the frustration of submitting my will to the leader who was setting the pace.”
― Nathan Foster, The Making of an Ordinary Saint: My Journey from Frustration to Joy with the Spiritual Disciplines

“We don’t conquer the disciplines; they conquer us.”
― Nathan Foster, The Making of an Ordinary Saint: My Journey from Frustration to Joy with the Spiritual Disciplines

“C. S. Lewis’s words in Mere Christianity are so helpful here: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
― Nathan Foster, The Making of an Ordinary Saint: My Journey from Frustration to Joy with the Spiritual Disciplines