Aric Clark > Quotes

“How we behave is what we believe and what we do is who we are.”
― Aric Clark, Never Pray Again: Lift Your Head, Unfold Your Hands, and Get To Work

“The apostle Paul famously said of love that it “always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”5 He was speaking at the time of loving that person in the church that you passionately dislike and never agree with, not about romantic love. The key characteristic of love in Paul’s ode is its excessiveness. No student of moderation, love always protects, even when doing so means giving up its own life for the beloved. Love always trusts, even when it has been repeatedly betrayed. Love always hopes, even when it is obviously ridiculous to do so. Love always perseveres, even after death.”
― Aric Clark, Never Pray Again: Lift Your Head, Unfold Your Hands, and Get To Work

“Of course, sheep require a shepherd. Due to the domestication process, sheep can no longer survive on their own. They are optimized for what we want from them and unable to defend themselves or respond to challenges. We have made them that way over a long period of time. In a way, the sheep do flourish—they are born and live and die, they don’t have to worry about predators most of the time, and they are led to the greenest pastures. In a similar way, many Christians are insulated by Christian subculture, so that they only have to listen to Christian music and read Christian books and go to Christian events—and not even broadly Christian, but—in the U.S. at least—very specifically conservative Evangelical Christian. These Christians are also led to the green pastures—megachurches and bestselling “spiritual” books and charming pastors—and, in a very limited way, perhaps, they flourish in this domestication. Over generations, whole communities can forget that they were ever free and wild.”
― Aric Clark, Never Pray Again: Lift Your Head, Unfold Your Hands, and Get To Work

“Once you see yourself clearly, you will see your flaws, your weakness, the ways in which you are still enslaved. You will recognize your enemy. This is the person you are to find a way to love.”
― Aric Clark, Never Pray Again: Lift Your Head, Unfold Your Hands, and Get To Work

“if God only interceded with those who deserve it, God would not intercede for any of us.”
― Aric Clark, Never Pray Again: Lift Your Head, Unfold Your Hands, and Get To Work

“It has been the tragic conviction of countless missionaries and followers of the social gospel that when we proclaim the good news and help the needy it is we who are serving as icons of Christ, when instead we should approach our labor as supplicants seeking the face of God.”
― Aric Clark, Never Pray Again: Lift Your Head, Unfold Your Hands, and Get To Work

“Christ’s followers go out to heal the world, to bind up wounds and to receive wounds in turn, to accept harm rather than inflict it, to seek reconciliation rather than retribution, to embrace rather than exclude. As we are healed, we are to offer healing to others.”
― Aric Clark, Never Pray Again: Lift Your Head, Unfold Your Hands, and Get To Work

“God is right beside you, right now. Not in some mystical otherworldly sense, but in the hungry person you have a chance to feed; the thirsty person you could give a cup of water to; the naked person you could clothe; the sick person you could care for; the prisoner you could be visiting.”
― Aric Clark, Never Pray Again: Lift Your Head, Unfold Your Hands, and Get To Work