William Paul Young Quotes

you are a beautiful mess, you
are the melody…

You have the freedom to trust and the freedom to turn. This is the profound and sometimes painful mystery of community and love.

Paradigms power perceptions, perceptions power emotions.

But this is a good place to start. I often find that getting head issues out of the way first makes the heart stuff easier to work on later. . . when you're ready.

My dear, how will you ever learn unless you first don't know?

He doesn't stop a lot of things that cause him pain. Your world is severely broken. You demanded your independence, and now you are angry with the one who loved you enough to give it to you. Nothing is as it should be, as Papa desires it to be, and as it will be one day. Right now your world is lost in darkness and chaos, and horrible things happen to those that he is especially fond of… Papa has never needed evil to accomplish his good purposes. It is you humans who have embraced evil and Papa has responded with goodness. What happened to Missy was the work of evil and no one in your world is immune from it."
~Sophia

while some things may not be scientifically provable, they can still be true nonetheless.

My purposes are always and only an expression of love. I purpose to work life out of death, to bring freedom out of brokenness and turn darkness into light.

Our deep longings remind us we have lost something vital and precious. Such yearnings are the stirring of hope. Of returning." "Returning where?" "To this garden.

We are thankful for the gifts that surround us, and then we let them go, trusting that nothing will be lost, even if we lose it for a time.

Even should we find another Eden, we would not be fit to enjoy it perfectly nor stay in it forever. - Henry Van Dyke

Love always leaves a significant mark.

Letting go is also a returning.

The soul is healed by being with children.
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky

You heard and felt the harmonies of light, at least
the surface of them, but you didn't notice, did you, that the
melody was missing?"
It was true, Tony had not heard a melody, just a symphony of
harmonies.
"I don't understand. What's the missing melody?" he asked.
"You, Anthony! You are the melody! You are the reason for
the existence of what you witnessed and consider so
immeasurably awe inspiring. Without you, what you perceived
would have no meaning and no shape. Without you, it would
have simply… fallen apart.

Did I hear God call me an idiot?

every person is a story and therefore is a storyteller. Trouble is that many fear failure, so they never begin.

Am I going crazy? Am I supposed to believe that God is a big black woman with a questionable sense of humor?

but how will I hear you?"
"You will learn to hear my thoughts in yours, MacKenzie," she reassured him.

you will hear and see me in the Bible in fresh ways. Just don't look for rules and principles; look for relationship - a way of coming to be with us.

In any dance you sometimes lead, but always both submit.

Grace doesn't depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors." "Actually, that's a relief. I couldn't bear to think

It's extremely hard to rescue someone unless he is willing to trust you.

Marriage is not an institution. It's a relationship.

I will use every choice you make for the ultimate good and the most loving outcome.

Love is just the skin of knowing.

And you're my mother? How can you be my mother? You're . . ." "Black?" She laughed so cleanly and joyfully that Lilly couldn't help but join her, though still completely perplexed. "Dear one, how beautiful is black, which includes and keeps all color?

Tony stood up and began pacing the room. "Jack," he
confessed, "my life that I defined as a success is actually a total
shambles, and yet you're suggesting that underneath it all, there
is an unimaginable beauty? Are you telling me that I matter?
That even though I am this ugly, ordinary-looking root, that I was
designed and intended to express a unique and extraordinary
flower? That's what you are telling me… right?"
Jack nodded, again removing his pipe for a puff.
"And I assume," Tony continued, "this is true about every
human being, each person born - "
"Conceived!" interrupted Jack.
"Each person 'conceived' on the planet, each one living in
life-before, each one is a root in which a flower is waiting?
Right?"
Again Jack nodded

Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets. - Paul Tournier

Rumors of glory are often hidden inside what many consider myths and tales.

Faith does not grow in the house of certainty.

This whole thing is a process, not an event.

Does that mean," asked Mack, "that all roads will lead to you?" "Not at all," smiled Jesus..."Most roads don't lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you.

Humans have the tendency to restructure language according to their independence and need to perform.