To confess your sins to God is not to tell [God] anything [God] doesn't already know. Until you confess them, however, they are the abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the bridge.
Frederick BuechnerRead
The pride that keeps us from forgiving is the same pride which keeps us from accepting forgiveness.
Interpretation
Pride can hinder both the act of forgiving others and the acceptance of forgiveness from them.
This quote by Frederick Buechner suggests that pride is a significant barrier in human relationships. It prevents individuals from forgiving those who have wronged them, as well as from accepting forgiveness when it is offered. Pride can manifest as an unwillingness to admit faults or the fear of vulnerability, which ultimately leads to a cycle of unresolved conflicts and emotional distance between people.
In practice
In a speech about healing personal relationships, one might share this quote to illustrate the impact of pride.
To confess your sins to God is not to tell [God] anything [God] doesn't already know. Until you confess them, however, they are the abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the bridge.
By and large a good rule for finding out is this: the kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work a) that you need most to do and b) the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you've presumably met requirement a), but if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, the chances are you've missed requirement b).
When you remember me, it means you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.
We find by losing. We hold fast by letting go. We become something new by ceasing to be something old. This seems to be close to the heart of that mystery. I know no more now than I ever did about the far side of death as the last letting-go of all, but now I know that I do not need to know, and that I do not need to be afraid of not knowing. God knows. That is all that matters.
To be wise is to be eternally curious.
if you don't have doubts you're either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants-in-the-pants of faith. They keep it alive and moving.
I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought and decision we make. Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories. We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared their love.
What is there more kindly than the feeling between host and guest?
But she has gathered that Americans, in spite of their public declarations of affection, in spite of their miniskirts and bikinis, in spite of their hand-holding on the street and lying on top of each other on the Cambridge Common, prefer their privacy.
The question of the family now divides our society so deeply that the opposing sides cannot even agree on a definition of the institution they are arguing about.
Husbands and wives, first, be faithful to each other. Second, keep the romance going all of your life by courting each other every day.
If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.
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