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Witnessing Quotes

Browse 36 quotes about Witnessing.

Witnessing Quotes

“During the pandemic, I couldn’t bring myself to leave the house, terrified I would find myself standing in the doorway of an ICU room, watching the doctors press their whole weight on the chest of my mother, my sisters, my children, terrified of the lurch of their feet, the lurch that accompanies each press that restarts the heart, the jerk of their pale, tender soles, terrified of the frantic prayer without intention that keens through the mind, the prayer for life that one says in the doorway, the prayer I never want to say again, the prayer that dissolves midair when the hush-click-hush-click of the ventilator drowns it, terrified of the terrible commitment at the heart of me that reasons that if the person I love has to endure this, then the least I can do is stand there, the least I can do is witness, the least I can do is tell them over and over again, aloud, I love you. We love you. We ain’t going nowhere.”

LoveDeathLossGriefFamilyDyingLoved OnesCovid 19Witnessing
Author:Jesmyn Ward
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“I notice that when the other person has been in despair for a prolonged period, I begin to feel myself crumbling into discouragement internally. One of the ways my system seeks to protect both me and the other person is to activate into helpful doing. Even though it is a psuedo-engagement, the intent is to shelter both of us from being engulfed in despair.”

DespairSelf CompassionPerson CenteredWitnessingTherapy TipsTips For PsychologistsCompanioning
Book:The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships
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“If I had my way, I would declare a moratorium on public preaching of 'the plan of salvation' in America for one to two years. Then I would call on everyone who has use of the airwaves and the pulpits to preach the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, and the Law of God until sinners would cry out, 'What must we do to be saved?" Then I would take them off in a corner and whisper the gospel to them. Don't use John 3:16. Such drastic action is needed because we have a gospel hardened generation of sinners by telling them how to be saved before they have any understanding why they need to be saved.”

GodChristianEvangelismWitnessingSoul Winning
Author:Paris Reidhead
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“I once expected to spend seven years walking around the world on foot. I walked from Mexico to Panama where the road ended before an almost uninhabited swamp called the Choco Colombiano. Even today there is no road. Perhaps it is time for me to resume my wanderings where I left off as a tropical tramp in the slums of Panama. Perhaps like Ambrose Bierce who disappeared in the desert of Sonora I may also disappear. But after being in all mankind it is hard to come to terms with oblivion - not to see hundreds of millions of Chinese with college diplomas come aboard the locomotive of history - not to know if someone has solved the riddle of the universe that baffled Einstein in his futile efforts to make space, time, gravitation and electromagnetism fall into place in a unified field theory - never to experience democracy replacing plutocracy in the military-industrial complex that rules America - never to witness the day foreseen by Tennyson 'when the war-drums no longer and the battle-flags are furled, in the parliament of man, the federation of the world.' I may disappear leaving behind me no worldly possessions - just a few old socks and love letters, and my windows overlooking Notre-Dame for all of you to enjoy, and my little rag and bone shop of the heart whose motto is 'Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise.' I may disappear leaving no forwarding address, but for all you know I may still be walking among you on my vagabond journey around the world." [Shakespeare & Company, archived statement]”

HumanityHistoryMankindWalkingTravelHospitalityWitnessingLegaciesWanderingsMementosBook StoresShakespeare And Company
Author:George Whitman
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“Becoming aware of the intense suffering of billions of animals, and of our own participation in that suffering, can bring up painful emotions: sorrow and grief for the animals; anger at the injustice and deception of the system; despair at the enormity of the problem; fear that trusted authorities and institutions are, in fact, untrustworthy; and guilt for having contributed to the problem. Bearing witness means choosing to suffer. Indeed, empathy is literally 'feeling with.' Choosing to suffer is particularly difficult in a culture that is addicted to comfort--a culture that teaches that pain should be avoided whenever possible and that ignorance is bliss. We can reduce our resistance to witnessing by valuing authenticity over personal pleasure, and integration over ignorance.”

SufferingEmpathyWitnessing
Book:Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism
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“All abusive systems are facilitated by bystanders, whose awareness of what is disavowed is always partial, resulting in a state of knowing and not-knowing. As dynamics shift, bystanders may behave like victims—passive, helpless, frightened and frozen, or like perpetrators—taking vicarious and voyeuristic pleasure in abuse or actively aiding and abetting the abusers.”

AbuseTraumaDenialNot KnowingPerpetratorsSociety DenialBystandersWitnessing
Author:Sylvia Solinski
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“The way we do apologetics looks different when we are motivated not by our desire to conquer the other person, but by our genuine love and compassion, and by our desire to see people discover God's lifegiving truth.”

GodTruthFaithChristianityEvangelismApologeticsWitnessingThe Great Commission
Book:How to Tell the Truth: The Story of How God Saved Me to Win Hearts--Not Just Arguments
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“Let us ask God to kill our pride and all the other sin inside us that might be in the way of the gospel. We don't ever want our personal conduct or behavior to be the reason someone rejects the gospel.”

GodFaithPrayerChristianityPrideAccountabilityEvangelismGospelWitnessingGospel Truth
Book:How to Tell the Truth: The Story of How God Saved Me to Win Hearts--Not Just Arguments
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“On an individual and corporate level the church is learning to love and accept people where they are at on their journey along with providing opportunities and experiences for them to engage relationally with other Christians along with exploring the implications of Christ's teachings. I am a big proponent of the concept that Christianity is more “caught that taught” and that a person’s meaningful involvement in the process is critical to them experiencing the power of the gospel in their lives. This meaningful involvement takes time and persevering love.”

WitnessMissionEvangelismMissional ChurchWitnessingMissionalMissional Evangelism
Book:Spiritual Conversations: Creating and Sustaining Them Without Being a Jerk
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“On reflection now, it seems to me she was already telling me what she needed most--a place to settle in proximity, safety, warmth and quiet because she had none of that as a child.”

Person CenteredWitnessingNonverbal CommunicationPerson CentredSomatic HealingAttachment HealingNonverbal TherapyEmbodied Wisdom
Book:The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships
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“We were holding this together, and our joined windows of tolerance seemed able to contain the physical and emotional intensity. Witnessing and empathizing at the same time, it seemed we were able to bring some ventral presence to this world.”

InquiryTrauma HealingTrauma RecoveryWitnessingSafe PresencePolyvagal TherapySand TrayVentral StateWindows Of Tolerance
Book:The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships
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“Animals are the lower intelligent of creatures, yet God illustrates man as one of them. Why? To demonstrate to us how careless, how thoughtless, and sometimes how cruel and low-life we can be without him. Without God, we go through a hard, disappointing, and dreadful life. We are like fearful, untrained, and bitter children that have played all day and are afraid to go to sleep at night, thinking we are going to miss out or be left out of things. A sailor out on a stormy sea needs a strong sail and anchor for the days and a lighthouse for the nights to survive. This is a good illustration of witnessing. We draw from one another’s strength for the day and mediate on it in the nights in accordance with God’s Word. God has faded out of the mind of this generation, we like immature children, believe that the Toyland of material wealth is a sufficient world. Yet houses, cars, and money really do not fulfill. Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob – a generation of God-fearing men. But in the next generation, God was not the God of Isaac. He had faded and became second place in their lives. Even in the mother’s womb, there was a struggle for honor and success. Jacob stole his brother’s birthright. Morals were decaying, rottenness appeared. The same things have happened with us. Our whole nation is reaping the results of a fading faith and trust, which is producing decaying morals and a decaying country. We are morally out of control. Unless we, like Jacob, who when frightened for his life desired a moral renewal, acknowledge that we are wrong and find God in the process. We must seek God with our whole hearts. The future of this world is in the hands of the believers. God has left everything in the hands of the church. Therefore, we must witness. An evangelical team must go out and bring the people back to the Garden of Eden as God had originally planned. Grace is always available!”

Hidden TreasureWitnessingTreasure Of ThoughtsTreasure ChestGod Is Our IntellectThe Holy Spirit Within UsBiblical StonesGod S IntelligenceGod S JewelsMounted On The Foundation WallRosa Pearl Johnson S Second BookThe Ox And His OwnerThe Wall Of JerusalemTreasure Of DebtTreasury Talk
Author:Rosa Pearl Johnson
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“I imagine some artists like myself love the spotlight. It is a beautiful thing to have your art recognised. for it to be admired like a flower in the field. But I wonder, does a flower know it’s a marvel? Does it feel pleasure to be adored? Does it realise when it’s been cut? that it’s been commodified, that an entire value chain exists around it, that hands will decide its worth or would it prefer to be left alone, admired from a distance, its petals untouched, for the bees, for the air. I wonder…”

EcologyArtists QuotesFlower QuotesWitnessingBlack Woman Writer
Author:Malebo Sephodi
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“Finally, in terms of overall spiritual intelligence—which we have been briefly tracking—on the other side of the leading edge of evolution we have 3 or 4 higher, at this point mostly potential, levels of development, including levels of spiritual intelligence. Individually, their basic strcture-rungs are referred to as para-mind, meta-mind, overmind, and supermind; collectively, they are called 3rd tier. What all 3rd-tier structures have in common is some degree of direct transpersonal identity and experience. Further, each 3rd-tier structure of consciousness is integrated, in some fashion, with a particular state of consciousness (often, para-mental with the gross, meta-mental with subtle, overmind with causal/Witnessing, and supermind with nondual, although this varies with each individual’s actual history). Previously, in 1sst and 2nd tier, structures and states were relatively independent. One could have a state center of gravity at gross and yet structurally evolve all the way to Integral without fully objectifying the gross stage (i.e., fully making it an object, fully transcending it). But beginning with the 3rd-tier para-mind, whenever you experience that structure, you also implicitly or intuitively understand or experience the gross realm as objectified, which means that state is intimately connected to the structure at this level, which gives rise, or can give rise, to expanded states such as nature mysticism (this can be experienced at earlier levels but not inherently, and is interpreted according to the Views of those lower levels; but at this level becomes an inherent potential). Likewise, because of the conjunction with the gross state, this level often carries variations of the realization that the physical world is not merely physical, but is rather psychophysical in its true nature. This can also evoke flashes of higher state presences, such as Witnessing states or even nondual. And so on with the subtle state and meta-mind; causal/Witnessing and overmind; and nondual Suchness and supermind. Those states are all “minimally” connected to those structures, in the sesne that, for example, a person at meta-mind might have already and previously moved his or her state center of gravity to subtle, but if not, the person cannot proceed beyond the meta-mind without doing so at this point. And likewise with causal/Witnessing and overmind; and nondual Suchness and supermind.”

WitnessingIntegralIntegral SpiritualityIntegral ConsciousnessSupermindThird TierOvermindIntegral Psychology
Book:The Fourth Turning: Imagining the Evolution of an Integral Buddhism
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“If evangelism is really going to be a value that your church embraces, the church will have to embrace the changes that will take place when evangelism is activated in the church.”

ValuesMissionEvangelismChangesChurch LeadershipChurch LeadersWitnessingPastoral MinistryChurch PlantersEvangelisticMissional Evangelism
Book:Spiritual Conversations: Creating and Sustaining Them Without Being a Jerk
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“Think about it: virtually every atrocity in the history of humankind was enabled by a populace that turned away from a reality that seemed too painful to face, while virtually every revolution for peace and justice has been made possibly by a group of people who chose to bear witness and demanded that others bear witness as well.”

RevolutionActivismWitnessing
Book:Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism
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“There comes from this, then, at least a working definition of a soul: one’s capacity to sit with the mysteries of a thing that cannot in any rational way, be understood – only felt, only moved through. And sometimes that thing is so grotesque — what we do to one another so grotesque — that sitting with it feels an affront to the notion of art as a conduit of beauty. Still, sit. Sit.”

SoulMoralityTragedyActivismAtrocitiesWitnessing
Book:One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
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