Ben

“It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects—education, building, missions, holding services. Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects—military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden—that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time. In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity: A Classic Non-Fiction Guide to Faith

“This knight's trouble from his childhood--which he never completely grew out of--was that for him God was a real person. He was not an abstraction who punished you if you were wicked or rewarded you if you were good, but a real person like Guenever, or like Arthur, or like anybody else. Of course he felt that God was better than Guenever or Arthur, but the point was that he was personal. Lancelot had a definite idea of what he looked like, and how he felt--and he was somehow in love with this Person.”
― T.H. White, The Ill-Made Knight

“Every week I counsel young people from solid Christian homes who are undone by their sin. As parents, we are sometimes more invested in protecting our children from the sinful influences of this world than we are in preparing them for the deep sinfulness of their own hearts.”
― Barbara R. Duguid, Extravagant Grace: God's Glory Displayed in Our Weakness

“I've rattled around long enough to have learned one thing: the universe is cold, and cruel, and violent - but only if you choose to look at it that way. For every act of aggression there are a thousand acts of kindness. For every hateful word, a million declarations of love.”
― James Roberts, The Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #1