Mcmanus Quotes

My life has been like a battlefield, a war that could never be won unless I had her with me, and the day she died my battlefront stepped down and threw away their shields, allowing the gunshots to slip through the second her heart stopped beating. From that moment onwards I was left wounded, and for those seventeen years without her my wounds bled-wounds no stitch could ever repair. ~ Rebecah McManus

Like we're some kind of hip high school murder club without a care in the world. ~ Karen M. McManus

There is a miracle called Friendship
that dwells within the heart
and you don't know how it happens
or when it even starts.

But the happiness it brings you
always gives a special lift
and you realize that Friendship
is God's most precious gift. ~ Jean Kyler McManus

The life of faith is less about gathering information than it is about expanding imagination. The movement Jesus started was a movement of dreamers and visionaries, not a movement of academics and theologians. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

At this moment, I've never wanted to do anything as much as I want to grab his face and kiss every inch of it. ~ Karen M. McManus

She's a pain in my ass and I can't remember why I wanted to kiss her so badly a few minutes ago. ~ Karen M. McManus

But you can't change the past, you know? All you can do is try harder next time. So don't give up on yourself just yet. ~ Karen M. McManus

I hope my greatest contribution will be to try to extract principles of truth that will cause us to live our lives in a more effective way and to advance Jesus' purpose in the world. ~ Erwin McManus

God, you are within me and with me right now and you give me comfort. You give me peace. You give me strength. You give me all the blessings I need to live an abundant and blessed life. ~ Paul McManus

What a tourist terms a plague of insects, the fly fisher calls a great hatch. ~ Patrick F. McManus

Now, now." She sits across from me with her toast and offers me a slice, but I push it back toward her. "Give it time. Do you remember what I told you in the hospital?" I shake my head. "Things'll get worse before they get better. Well, they surely did get worse, and now there's nowhere to go but up." She takes a bite and I keep spinning the quarter until she swallows. "You should bring that boy of yours by sometime for dinner, Cooper. It's about time we met him. ~ Karen M. McManus

I have so much confidence in the reality of Jesus that I feel no pressure to try to make people act or be a certain way. I'm banking everything on the fact that God actually changes people. ~ Erwin McManus

I don't know why it's so hard for people to admit that sometimes they're just assholes who screw up because they don't expect to get caught. ~ Karen M. McManus

One night when we were lying under the stars together she pointed to this beaming bright star beside the moon and said wherever she was in the world, whether we were together or apart, that I should remember her with that star because it would always be there-that it was her with me. ~ Rebecah McManus

Are we friends, or just a couple of people without better options? ~ Karen M. McManus

The future awaits those with the courage to create it. ~ Erwin McManus

The more isolated and disconnected we are, the more shattered and distorted our self-identity. We are not healthy when we are alone. We find ourselves when we connect to others. Without community we don't know who we are ...
When we live outside of healthy community, we not only lose others. We lose ourselves ... Who we understand ourselves to be is dramatically affected for better or worse by those we hold closest to us. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

There is something powerful about singing to God as an act of worship, but it is time to reframe our perspective and our language to genuinely encompass all of life as worship. ~ Erwin McManus

I think that's a part of what motivates me in my teaching and writing. Once the Gospel feels mainstream and becomes a nicely organized, orchestrated belief system, frankly, I don't think there is even an attraction to the human spirit. ~ Erwin McManus

I had someone a month ago tell me at a campaign lunch that you can't be a Christian and a Democrat. I think that that view is dissipating very, very fast. ~ Erwin McManus

Creativity should be an everyday experience. Creativity should be as common as breathing. We breathe, therefore we create. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

It's not your freedom to choose that makes you free. It's what you choose in that freedom that makes you free. ~ Erwin McManus

Some people are too toxic to live. They just are. ~ Karen M. McManus

What is the future you're creating right now? ~ Erwin McManus

If he's just watching, then we're all unwilling participants in the universe's biggest reality show - the original Survivor. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

Tony McManus is the best Celtic guitarist in the world. ~ John Renbourn

Jesus's early followers formed a movement of dreamers and visionaries. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

the unexpected truth that the safest place for a sinful person to go is to God. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

It is so surreal to come into a shop and see pictures of myself everywhere and hear my album playing. ~ Michelle McManus

Whether we realize it or not, everything we do is an expression of either how alive our souls are or how much we have allowed ourselves to be deadened over time. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

The soul is both fragile and resilient...The artisan soul must be both tender and tough. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

Bad guys are selfish and cruel. All they do is take and take until you're left empty. But a bad boy is different. He can be reckless and a little dangerous, but he challenges you and gets you to take risks. He pushes you beyond what's comfortable and safe, into something exciting and new. It forces you to truly embrace life instead of settling. And sometimes, just sometimes, that bad boy turns out to be a real good man. ~ Stephanie Hoffman McManus

You are both a work of art and an artist at work. ~ Erwin McManus

I love what Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh and Jesus all said - that love is really the driving principle of the creative act. In fact, they would say that great art is always inspired by love. ~ Erwin McManus

irony is that, while secular leadership has become blatantly spiritual, Christian leadership has become blatantly (and blandly) secular. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

I just read a book on how to get control of my time and therefore of my life. My time has always had a tendency to slip away from me and do as it pleases. My life follows it, like a puppy after an untrained bird dog. Come night, my life shows up, usually covered with mud and full of stickers, exhausted but grinning happily. My time never returns. ~ Patrick F. McManus

I thought she was your mother. ~ Karen M. McManus

I'm the omniscient narrator ~ Karen M. McManus

Frankly, the people who whine the most about how hard their lives are have very rarely experienced much to be disappointed about. They seem to find solace in their most negative memories, using these as a blank check that abdicates them from all personal responsibility. "I am how I am because of the pain of my past. If you had experienced what I have experienced, you would understand my bitterness, my anger, my paralysis, my despair. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

I believe it is the inability of beginning writers to achieve at least a certain degree of detachment from their writing that defeats so many of them before they even get started. Without this distancing, any criticism of your writing will seem devastating, even incapacitating, whereas with the proper amount of detachment it will seem merely cruel and unusual punishment. ~ Patrick F. McManus

The history of God's people is not a record of God searching for courageous men and women who could handle the task, but God transforming the hearts of cowards and calling them to live courageous lives. ~ Erwin McManus

The reality is that every human being is placed on this planet, and one of the things that drives humans is their need for meaning, and if you can make every job meaningful, then you will guarantee that every job will be done to its highest level of excellence. ~ Erwin McManus

The Doll Collector - A Beck McManus Novel - By Edward Jakubik ~ Edward Jakubik

You need to remember who God is, forget the painful wounds and let Him renew you. ~ Erwin McManus

People outside of the faith really appreciate Mosaic and really love what we're doing. ~ Erwin McManus

It takes courage to not only accept our limitations but embrace our potential. To deny our creative nature is to choose a life where we are less and thus responsible for less. We see ourselves as created beings, so we choose to survive. When we see ourselves as creative beings, we must instead create. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

In an ideal world, the voices that teach us language teach us self-respect, self-confidence, and self-esteem. Those same voices also form in us humility and gratitude, and as those voices inform our inner voices, they also pass on wisdom. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

When we stop believing the world can become a better place, when we stop caring about the lives and conditions of others, we lose a part of ourselves. ~ Erwin McManus

The world doesn't need more great leaders, it needs more great people who lead. ~ Erwin McManus

Unfortunately, the people who have the greatest influence in our lives rarely understand the power of their words to shape who we become. They never fully understand that what informs us forms us. Words spoken into a soul are like the hands of a potter pressed against wet clay. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

Greatness comes with discipline. ~ Erwin McManus

Good judgement is based on experience, much of which is the result of bad judgement. ~ Ron McManus

That's the kind of person you can get away with killing: someone everybody else wants dead. ~ Karen M. McManus

We want to help everyone find meaning in their life and help translate the story that each person actually matters in the world. ~ Erwin McManus

The two best times to fish is when it's raining and when it ain't. ~ Patrick F. McManus

Two thousand years ago, God started a revolt against the religion He started. So don't ever put it past God to cause a groundswell movement against churches and Christian institutions that bear His name. ~ Erwin McManus

My goal is to destroy Christianity. ~ Erwin McManus

Whoever tells the best story shapes the culture. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

The serving that we are called to requires direct contact. You cannot wash the feet of a dirty world if you refuse to touch it. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

The Ten Commandments are the lowest possible standard of humane living. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

People who are fully alive look out of their minds to those who simply exist. ~ Erwin McManus

You are an artist. What work of art will you leave behind? ~ Erwin McManus

We are constantly learning and growing and changing. We are really an experiment. We are endeavoring to discover if a community of faith can exist purely for the good of others. ~ Erwin McManus

The journey to freedom is paved by the substance of our character. ~ Erwin McManus

I'm sort of like the kid that kicks around in Vans, beat-up Converse, ripped jeans, and t-shirts. ~ Michaela McManus

I know it sounds crazy, but as soon as Christians start telling non-Christians how to live their lives, we've lost the Christian faith. ~ Erwin McManus

The first seven years of the Joshua tree's life, it's just a vertical stem. No branches," she told me while we were hiking. "It takes years before it blossoms. And every branching stem stops growing after it blossoms, so you've got this complex system of dead areas and new growth."
I used to think about that, sometimes, when I wondered what parts of her might still be alive. ~ Karen M. McManus

If we are inherently spiritual creatures, we are by our nature creative beings, yet we live in the fear that if we aspire to be more we will discover ourselves to be less. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

We were created to be expressions of the goodness and wholeness of God. ~ Erwin McManus

Home is ultimately not about a place to live but about the people with whom you are most fully alive. Home is about love, relationship, community, and belonging, and we are all searching for home. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

While I was explaining to my own doctor that I was planning to undertake some serious exercise, I happened to mention that I thought I had lost quite a bit of weight since my last physical. "You didn't lose it," he said. "It just slipped around to your rear where you can't see it. ~ Patrick F. McManus

I refused to let go of what I had. ~ Erwin McManus

There is no proof of creativity without action. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

God has leveraged the human spirit to move in His direction, and all the material we need to bring a person to the realization that they were created by God actually already exists inside that person. ~ Erwin McManus

Most people who describe themselves as visionaries are actually saying something quite different. They are abdicating their responsibility for the details. Details matter. The more someone or something matters to us, the more the details relating to them matter to us. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

She gave a little sob deep in her throat.

'Call it a prophecy, call it a prediction, call it fate - call it what you will. I fought against it hard enough, God knows. But the evidence of my own eyes, my own ears, my own senses, is too much for me. And the time's too short now. I'm afraid to take a chance. I haven't got the nerve to bluff it out, to sit pat. You don't gamble with a human life. Today's the 13th, isn't it? It's too close to the 14th; there isn't time-margin enough left now to be skeptical, to keep it to myself any longer. Day by day I've watched him cross off the date on his desk-calendar, drawing nearer to death. There are only two leaves left now, and I want help! Because on the 14th - at the exact stroke of midnight, as the 15th is beginning -'

She covered her face with both arms and shook silently.

'Yes?' urged McManus. 'Yes?'

'He's become convinced - oh, and almost I have too - that at exactly midnight on the 14th he's to die. Not just die but meet his death in full vigor and health, a death rushing down to him from the stars he was born under - rushing down even before he existed at all. A death inexorable, inescapable. A death horrid and violent, inconceivable here in this part of the world where we live.'

She took a deep, shuddering breath, whispered the rest of it. 'Death at the jaws of a lion.' ("Speak To Me Of Death") ~ Cornell Woolrich

God is not a drug, and He certainly does not create experiences and emotions that make us feel better but not become better. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

You learn more about how to use the desktop environment in Chapter 4. For now, double-click the Wi-Fi Config icon on the desktop to open the tool. Click the Scan button to search for available Wi-Fi networks. Double-click the one you'd like to use, and it will prompt you to enter your security information by completing the white (unshaded) boxes (see Figure 3-10). The SSID box is used for the name of the network and will be completed automatically for you. You most likely have a WPA network, so the PSK box is where you type in your Wi-Fi password. You can ignore the optional boxes. Finally, click the Add button to connect to the network. ~ Sean McManus

In life we don't always get what we want; hopes and dreams get washed away so easily, hearts are broken, chances are missed, and we always seem to end up right back where we started. ~ Rebecah McManus

To live outside of God's will puts us in danger; to live in his will makes us dangerous. ~ Erwin McManus

While we would love to have no criticism, probably if we had no critique, we wouldn't be doing anything meaningful. ~ Erwin McManus

The first and most important step in the process of becoming genuinely is to be once again authenticated by the original designer. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

If we keep asking the wrong questions, we are just going to get better wrong answers. The solution to lack of community isn't to give up on the community. ~ Erwin McManus

Show me a man who fishes in winter, and I'll show you a fanatic. Actually, I'll get the better of the deal, because for sheer spectacle a fanatic doesn't hold a candle to a man who fishes in winter ~ Patrick F. McManus

Is it possible that the creative act is simply the materialization of the future- making the invisible, visible? ~ Erwin McManus

In some sense we are all hypocrites in transition. ~ Erwin McManus

My primary assessment would be because American Christians tend to be incredibly self-indulgent, so they see the church as a place there for them to meet their needs and to express faith in a way that is meaningful for them. ~ Erwin McManus

When we are passionate about God, we can trust our passions. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

The best use of technology is to enhance the power of worship that is an expression of spirit and truth. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

Los Angeles has been known as the center of creativity but has often been equally known for the absence of spirituality. ~ Erwin McManus

I think we are all trying to figure out what it means to be the Church as opposed to just doing church. ~ Erwin McManus

If you were meant to fly, not even running really fast is that impressive. ~ Erwin McManus

Gratitude changes your perspective about life. You see the future, experience the present, and remember the past in a dramatically different way. ~ Erwin McManus

I think Christianity is the same as Buddhism and Hinduism - whenever a religion begins to say that these are the things you have to do to be loved by God, you have a religion. ~ Erwin McManus

She cocks her head at me and adds, "I don't need your commentary if you disagree, by the way."

I hold up my hands. "Wasn't going to say a word, Addy."

"When did you even start knowing my name," she deadpans.

I grin at her. "You've gotten kinda feisty since you lost all the hair. And the boyfriend. ~ Karen M. McManus

While religions have historically tried to make us the same, Jesus calls us to be different. If you have ever experienced this, you know your soul bristled at the demand to quietly get in line and conform. But something in your gut told you this was wrong. If there was a God, his value would not be uniformity, but uniqueness. And you were right. Imprinted on your soul is the fingerprint of God. There is something inside you that resists surrendering your soul to legalism. The good news is that all that time it wasn't you fighting against God; you were fighting for what God has created you to become. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus

We're a part of the insurrection, trying to turn Christianity upside down. We're an experimental church: God's research and development arm. ~ Erwin McManus

You have a generation that is saying we are tapping out of religion in many ways. But what they are not saying is that we are tapping out of a serious search for meaning in life. ~ Erwin McManus

My sisters treated me like a living doll for years, carrying me around so much that I didn't bother learning to walk until I was almost two. ~ Karen M. McManus

The most important moments rarely come at a convenient time ~ Erwin McManus