The abundance of our lives is not determined by how long we live, but how well we live. Christ makes abundant life possible if we choose to live it now.
Interpretation
The quality of life matters more than its length, and embracing Christ can lead to a richer life experience.
This quote emphasizes that the essence of a fulfilling life is not measured by its duration, but by the richness of experiences and choices we make during our time. The mention of Christ suggests that a spiritual connection can enhance our ability to live fully and meaningfully in the present.
In practice
In a speech about living a meaningful life, one might say this quote to inspire the audience.
With so much effort being poured into church growth, so much press being given to the benefits of faith, and so much flexing of religious muscle in the public square, the poor in spirit have no one but Jesus to call them blessed anymore.
Whoever you are, you are human. Wherever you are, you live in the world, which is just waiting for you to notice the holiness in it.
Jesus was not killed by atheism and anarchy. He was brought down by law and order allied with religion, which is always a deadly mix. Beware those who claim to know the mind of God and who are prepared to use force, if necessary, to make others conform. Beware those who cannot tell God's will from their own. Temple police are always a bad sign. When chaplains start wearing guns and hanging out at the sheriff's office, watch out. Someone is about to have no king but Caesar
I discovered a version of the sinner's prayer that increased my faith far more than the one that I had said years earlier...In this version, there were no formulas, no set phrases that promised us safe passage across the abyss. There was only our tattered trust that the Spirit who had given us life would not leave us in the wilderness without offering us life again.
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.
I have learned to prize holy ignorance more highly than religious certainty and to seek companions who have arrived at the same place. We are a motley crew, distinguished not only by our inability to explain ourselves to those who are more certain of their beliefs than we are but in many cases by our distance from the centers of our faith communities as well.
Sometimes I'm more stubborn than I am smart.
Doing risk sports had taught me another important lesson: never exceed your limits. You push the envelope and you live for those moments when you’re right on the edge, but you don’t go over. You have to be true to yourself; you have to know your strengths and limitations and live within your means. The same is true for a business. The sooner a company tries to be what it is not, the sooner it tries to ‘have it all,’ the sooner it will die.
If you turn the imagination loose like a hunting dog, it will often return with the bird in its mouth.
Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.
It is not by sitting still at a grand distance and calling the human race larvae that men are to be helped.
Only a fool lets somebody else tell him who his enemy is....never let your enemies choose your enemies for you.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.