Rachel

“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

“I won't deny that it is possible for our restless hearts to find rest in God, but I do want to deny that this rest results from the satisfaction of our desires. God does not save us from our hungers by satisfying them. God saves us from the tyranny of our desires by saving us from the impossible work of satisfying them.
[from the essay "The God Who Weeps: Notes, Amens, and Disagreements)”
― Adam S. Miller, Future Mormon: Essays in Mormon Theology

“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 doesn't grease the wheels of the law. Grace isn't God's way of jury rigging a broken law. It's the other way around. The law is just one small cog in a world animated entirely--from top to bottom, from beginning to end--by grace.”
― Adam S. Miller, Grace Is Not God's Backup Plan: An Urgent Paraphrase of Paul's Letter to the Romans