Jeff Oden

“We're told in Psalms 46:10, to "be still," or to "cease striving," and know that He is God. Some people are familiar with this verse but not the larger context, which is that of someone looking over the remains of a battlefield. The original Hebrew is suggestive of stopping the fight, letting go, and relaxing.

God wants us to drop our arms.

No more defensiveness. No more taking things personally. He'll handle it. Really.

Trust Him. Rest.”
― Brant Hansen, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better

“One of the hardest-to-swallow, most countercultural, counter intuitive implications of the gospel is that bearing up under a difficult burden with patient perseverance is a good thing.”
― Brant Hansen, Blessed Are the Misfits: Great News for Believers who are Introverts, Spiritual Strugglers, or Just Feel Like They're Missing Something

“If you call yourself a Christian, and you want things to be fair, and you want God’s rewards given out only to the deserving and the upstanding and the religious, well, honestly, Jesus has got to be a complete embarrassment to you.”
― Brant Hansen, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better

“War is not exceptional; peace is. Worry is not exceptional; trust is. Decay is not exceptional; restoration is. Anger is not exceptional; gratitude is. Selfishness is not exceptional; sacrifice is. Defensiveness is not exceptional; love is. And judgmentalism is not exceptional . . . But grace is.”
― Brant Hansen, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better