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Barbara Brown Taylor

Barbara Brown Taylor Quotes

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Famous Barbara Brown Taylor Quotes

“What is saving my life now is the conviction that there is no spiritual treasure to be found apart from the bodily experiences of human life on earth. My life depends on engaging the most ordinary physical activities with the most exquisite attention I can give them. My life depends on ignoring all touted distinctions between the secular and the sacred, the physical and the spiritual, the body and the soul. What is saving my life now is becoming more fully human, trusting that there is no way to God apart from real life in the real world.”

WorldWayGivingHumansI CanRealSoulBodyEarthSpiritualFoundAttentionDependsBecomingActivityOrdinarySacredConvictionTreasureReal LifeSavingHuman LifeDistinctionReal WorldSecularEngagingExquisiteBecoming MorePhysical Activity
Author:Barbara Brown Taylor
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“If churches saw their mission in the same way, there is no telling what might happen. What if people were invited to come tell what they already know of God instead of to learn what they are supposed to believe? What if they were blessed for what they are doing in the world instead of chastened for not doing more at church? What if church felt more like a way station than a destination? What if the church’s job were to move people out the door instead of trying to keep them in, by convincing them that God needed them more in the world than in the church?”

PeopleIfsKnowsWorldWayTryingBelieveMightHappensJobsMovingFeltChurchSawsDoorsNeededBlessedMissionsWhat IfDestinationStationsInvitedConvincing
Book:Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith
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“All I am saying is that anyone can do this. Anyone can ask and anyone can bless, whether anyone has authorized you to do it or not. All I am saying is that the world needs you to do this, because there is a real shortage of people willing to kneel wherever they are and recognize the holiness holding its sometimes bony, often tender, always life-giving hand above their heads. That we are able to bless one another at all is evidence that we have been blessed, whether we can remember when or not. That we are willing to bless one another is miracle enough to stagger the very stars.”

PeopleWorldNeedsGivingHas BeensRealSometimesEnoughHandsAbleRememberAsksStarsCan DoWillingEvidenceMiracleBlessedHolinessBlessRemember WhenNeed YouShortage
Author:Barbara Brown Taylor
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“Salvation is a word for the divine spaciousness that comes to human beings in all the tight places where their lives are at risk, regardless of how they got there or whether they know God's name. Sometimes it comes as an extended human hand and sometimes as a bolt from the blue, but either way it opens a door in what looked for all the world like a wall. This is the way of life, and God alone knows how it works.”

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Author:Barbara Brown Taylor
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“The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self - to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it.”

IfsWorldHumansSelfHelpingUseSpiritualHuman BeingsSpringPrisonNeighborHardestEncountersConvinceSpiritual Work
Book:An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith
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