Aimee Keller

“In sin, we come unplugged. When we refuse the givenness of life and withdraw from the present moment, we’re left to wander the world undead. Zombie-like, we wander from one moment to the next with no other goal than to get somewhere else, be someone else, see something else—anywhere, anyone, anything other than what is given here and now. We’re busy. We’ve got goals and projects. We’ve got plans. We’ve got fantasies. We’ve got daydreams. We’ve got regrets and memories. We’ve got opinions. We’ve got distractions. We’ve got games and songs and movies and a thousand TV shows. We’ve got anything and everything other than a first-hand awareness of our own lived experience of the present moment.”
― Adam S. Miller, Rube Goldberg Machines: Essays in Mormon Theology

“Grace isn’t God’s improvised response to sin. Sin is our ongoing refusal of God’s already given grace.”
― Adam S. Miller, Grace Is Not God's Backup Plan: An Urgent Paraphrase of Paul's Letter to the Romans

“People just want to feel full. Hunger, though, is eternal. On this score, what advantage do the wise have over fools? What advantage comes from knowing how to get ahead? It’s better to learn how to be content with what’s right in front of your eyes than to perpetually stoke your cravings with plans and fantasies. Nothing’s more futile than daydreams. Wishing things were different can’t change the fact that things happen as they must. Wishing for a different world can’t change the fact that God knew from the start how everything would end. It’s useless to argue with God about your fate. God’s plans are unfathomable. The more time you spend propping up your fantasies with fancy words and careful arguments, the less you’ll actually accomplish. What made you think more words would help? Words can’t fix this! You can barely tie your shoes, why would you think that you—you of all people!—would be the one who finally, actually, understood the world and knew what was best in life? No. Life is short. Wisdom is rare. The future is obscure.”
― Adam S. Miller, Nothing New Under the Sun: A Blunt Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes

“According to Isaiah it is necessary, at least for a time, that the messiah go unrecognized. It is crucial that, at least for a while, he remain hidden, that he not shine forth, that he have “no form, nor comeliness” and that he possess “no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa. 53:2). The Messiah’s coming must be delayed. This is necessary, at least in part, because the very act of recognition has messianic force. The shock of recognition changes us. The advent of the messianic depends on our seeing what was previously unseen. It should be no surprise, then, if the messianic is initially obscure, hidden under a rock, given in a grove, or stowed in a stable.”
― Adam S. Miller, Rube Goldberg Machines: Essays in Mormon Theology