Ramon L. Presson > Quotes

“In church, instead of singing (without really believing) the words of the hymn “Trust and Obey,” perhaps we should collectively sing to God the Janet Jackson hit, “What Have You Done for Me Lately?”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“Christian psychologist Larry Crabb makes the following challenging assessment: We treat personal discomfort as the central evil from which we need to be saved. When we blend the pursuit of comfort with Christianity, Jesus becomes a divine masseur whose demands we heed only after we are properly relaxed. But that is not the Christianity of the Bible. Christ offers hope, not relief, in the middle of suffering, and he commands us to pursue him hotly even when we’d rather stop and look after our own well-being.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“Not everyone has experienced divorce, the death of a child, or a cancer diagnosis, but everyone has experienced pain. Sometimes pain is worn on the face, and sometimes it is buried deep within the soul. It may have occurred yesterday or thirty years ago, but things happen that trouble the human psyche, and the hurt does not quickly evaporate.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“As much as we wish God would transfer his focus to more external and circumstantial matters, such as restored health, mortgage payments, and career transitions, God is primarily interested in pulling off an inside job. God is certainly at work all around us, but his primary transforming work is aimed at our minds and hearts.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“Discontentment holds today’s joy hostage with a list of demands of how things should be.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“Life is like living in a room full of dynamite with a monkey running around with a blowtorch. It’s not a matter of if, but just when.”
― Ramon L. Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“We don’t always have a lot of control over our circumstances. Nobody purposely chooses financial ruin or chronic illness. But we can choose to nurture relationships. We were created for relationship—relationship with God and relationship with one another.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“Do not waste your pain. Burn it as fuel for your journey.”
― Ramon L. Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“confined by a my-life-sucks attitude. If we always see our present circumstances as our definitive frame of reference, we’re in trouble. Our daily bread will be disappointment, frustration, and resentment. Our contentment and joy will be completely dependent upon our own comfort and ease. I don’t mean to suggest that self or circumstances don’t matter. But when we don’t set our sights above and beyond our own personal and present concerns, we live like a cyclops with one eye in the middle of our forehead—no peripheral vision.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“Regardless of what happens, we’re called to be faithful. Regardless of what happens, God loves us. Regardless of what happens, God has a plan, and it’s a good one.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“Writers and producers know that audiences crave resolution and feel-good endings. We all do. But life is messy. And while God promises to one day make everything right, the loose ends won’t always get tied up to our great satisfaction. Yet there is genuine joy available in the midst of the most bewildering and painful of circumstances. I know. I’ve been there.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“When Jesus said to his followers “take up your cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23) he didn’t say “carry the cross life hands to you.” Your financial crisis is not your cross to bear. Neither is a physical condition, a family problem, or a lousy job. Difficult life circumstances are not crosses to bear. Volitionally taking up the cross (an emblem of death) is a declaration that I’m crucifying my demand, my requirement to have my own way. It is a decision of self-sacrifice, a daily battle against the demon of selfishness. Don’t confuse this with a self-loathing statement such as, “I’m not important. It doesn’t matter what I want.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“When life sucks, you have to have friends. They’re one of God’s most important tools for reaching us and reminding us what is true and good about our lives and the universe we live in.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“God neither expects you nor has he equipped you to make it alone. Relationships are standard equipment, not an optional feature like a sunroof or an extra cup holder. We’ve been set up. God has hard-wired us to need each other and benefit from one another.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“There are often wonderful things about the past that we miss, and there are exciting possibilities in the future that we long for. Yet it is possible to get stuck lamenting over what is no more, wanting what might be, or resenting what may never be. Discontentment holds today’s joy hostage with a list of demands of how things should be.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“passion. When life sucks, you have to have friends. They’re one of God’s most important tools for reaching us and reminding us what is true and good about our lives and the universe we live in.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“The expectation that we “get over” or “move on” from a profound loss or crisis is not only unrealistic, but it may even be harmful in its call to amputate grief rather than integrate it into a new way of living.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“If you insist that your life just plain sucks, you need to ask yourself what you are overlooking or wasting. Can you see anything redemptive or useful from your past or in your current circumstances? Will you insist upon only viewing your life as you do now, staring it down through the lens of your habitual negativity and refusing to see it differently until something or someone touches it with a magic wand and turns the piles of gunk into gold? If that’s what you’re holding out for, you’re going to get really tired of the magazines in the waiting room.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“The apostle Paul said that if we only have hope for this life, with no legitimate hope of heaven, we are to be exceedingly pitied. But I believe that the converse is also true—if the only hope we have is the afterlife, then we get close to Camus’s assertion that the only question man must concern himself with is whether or not to commit suicide.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“grief. Whatever our loss and however deep our grief, eventually we come to some kind of crossroads that requires us to make a tough decision. While not denying my hurt or thinking that I must somehow simply get over it, I nevertheless face a choice. I can erect a monument here in the place of loss and grief and say, “This is where my life stopped and will permanently be buried.” Or, I can erect a marker and say, “This is where my pain has been felt and my deepest questions have gone unanswered. But with my hurt still with me, I will choose to live.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“There is more happening in your life than you know. God is working behind the scenes and beyond your awareness. There are strategic things set in motion on your behalf that are still hidden and unknown to you.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“Only someone who has been present with you in the journey of your setbacks can fully appreciate the significance of your breakthroughs.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“What if being a special instrument means actually becoming a less visible instrument? Significant work is often unrecognized and unrewarded.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“Though they never put it in these specific terms, the early Christians’ actions and reactions indicate that they fully understood and truly believed that God is good, life is not fair, and that God and life are not the same things.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“dealing with our past is not making it blank like a shaken Etch A Sketch®, erasing all traces of history and its influences. Rather, it is demanding that the past maintain its rank, refusing to allow it to promote itself and take authority over our present and our future.”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned

“anything of value to their surroundings. After all, they’re just passing through. This mentality is like viewing life as a rental car. No one washes and waxes a rental car—”
― Ramon Presson, When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned