Prayer is less about trying to get God to do something we want God to do and more about getting ourselves to do what God wants us to do and to become who God wants us to become.
“Dignified or not, believable or not, ours is a God perpetually on bended knee, doing everything it takes to convince stubborn and petulant children that they are seen and loved. It is no more beneath God to speak to us using poetry, proverb, letters, and legend than it is for a mother to read storybooks to her daughter at bedtime. This is who God is. This is what God does.”
― Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again
― Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again
“Jesus was a rabbi, schooled by rabbis, who thought like rabbis. Rabbis, upon being asked a question by a disciple, usually answer with a paradoxical inquiry or a story. This can be annoying and time-consuming for those of us looking for neat, simple answers. But truth is too wild and complex to be contained in one answer, so Jesus often responded with a question or a parable.”
― Almost Everything: Notes on Hope
― Almost Everything: Notes on Hope
“What helps is that we are not all crazy and hopeless on the same day.”
― Almost Everything: Notes on Hope
― Almost Everything: Notes on Hope
“The Gospels are the canon within the canon. The Bible, as martin Luther said, is the cradle that holds Christ. The point of gravity is the story of Jesus, the Gospel. The closer a text of the Bible is to that story or to the heart of that story's message, the more authority it has. The father away it is, the less its authority.
It's a story of how the God who spoke through prophets and poets was the same God who showed up later in a human body and walked around like he didn't understand the rules. Jesus said God's would is like a father running into the road to meet his no-good child as if the child's no-goodness was no matter.
Jesus' stories seemed like nonsense, but then they also seemed like absolute truth at the same time. He just kept saying that the things we think are so important rarely are: things like holding grudges and making judgments and hoarding wealth and being first. Then one night, this Jesus got all weird at dinner and said a loaf of bread was his body and a cup of wine was his blood, and all of it is for forgiveness. All of it means our no-goodness is no matter. Then he went and got himself killed in a totally preventable way. Three days later he blew his friends' minds by showing back up and being all like, "You guys have any snacks? I'm starving.”
― Shameless: A Case for Not Feeling Bad About Feeling Good
It's a story of how the God who spoke through prophets and poets was the same God who showed up later in a human body and walked around like he didn't understand the rules. Jesus said God's would is like a father running into the road to meet his no-good child as if the child's no-goodness was no matter.
Jesus' stories seemed like nonsense, but then they also seemed like absolute truth at the same time. He just kept saying that the things we think are so important rarely are: things like holding grudges and making judgments and hoarding wealth and being first. Then one night, this Jesus got all weird at dinner and said a loaf of bread was his body and a cup of wine was his blood, and all of it is for forgiveness. All of it means our no-goodness is no matter. Then he went and got himself killed in a totally preventable way. Three days later he blew his friends' minds by showing back up and being all like, "You guys have any snacks? I'm starving.”
― Shameless: A Case for Not Feeling Bad About Feeling Good
“Every task is important. Every moment has purpose.”
― Living with the Monks: What Turning Off My Phone Taught Me about Happiness, Gratitude, and Focus
― Living with the Monks: What Turning Off My Phone Taught Me about Happiness, Gratitude, and Focus
Joshua’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Joshua’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Art, Biography, Christian, Ebooks, Fiction, Memoir, Mystery, Philosophy, Poetry, Psychology, Religion, Science, Self help, Spirituality, and Travel
Polls voted on by Joshua
Lists liked by Joshua



















































