“We dishonor our creator when we give in to “it is what it is” thinking (pg xi).
“Time never healed a single wound without the loving, attentive way people have spent that time after hurting one another” (pg xii).
“When I give in to ‘it is what it is’ thinking, I dishonor the creative, redemptive, and loving God who made me and holds me together” (pb 4).
“Human history is shaped by the ideas, the dreams, and ultimately the will and work of the women and men who actively create, tear down, reimagine, and rebuild” (pg 6).
May we have friends who are “people who believe in who you are becoming, long-term - who believe it enough to invest and stay and celebrate along the way” (pg 21, 22).
“We are being shaped into people who make things that look as though God was involved rather than people who sit around expecting things to fall out of the sky, untouched by human hands” (pg 32).
“What are you going to do with the time, talent, resources, and relationships you have on hand?” (pg 33).
“How many projects or dreams or relationships are lying around your life in some form of disarray because you never took a moment to let yourself actually be disappointed and then, after a spell, got back up to see what you ahve on hand and started to tinker . . .
and build
and laugh
and disassemble
and talk
and plan
and tinker again
and build . . .
and eventually become the kind of person who makes the things you want to make - the kinds of things God created you to make?” (pg 34).
Peter “wasn’t just an accumulation of his mistakes; he wasn’t defined by his wrongdoings” (pg 43).
“Nobody was thinking about whether or not I’d done a good job - not even Jeff. Nobody in the room was thinking about me at all. I really liked that feeling. I might have even loved that feeling. The feeling of having been part of something beautiful” (pg 99).
“If Seth Godin is right that art is anything you and I make that helps forge a connection between people, then love is the primary characteristic of good art. Is it interesting? That’s good. Is it well done? That’s excellent. Are people loved by you in and through it? That’s art” (pg 121).
“Do I love it enough to learn to do it differently (maybe for the hundredth time)?
Do I love the people I do it with or for enough to take my injury seriously but not take it personally so that I don’t become resentful?” (pg 132).
I hadn’t felt capable of making something ‘better’ out of my circumstances. So I changed my circumstances and made something smaller. Turns out I made something more human” (pg 158).
“Like it or not, you are the gift you are always giving in and through the things you make and do. That will forever be true, and there is nothing you can do about it. On the other hand, there is plenty you can do about who you are and who you’d like to become. So, when things go sideways (because they will, beloved; over and over, things will fall apart), you’ll get the change to find out who you really are. I pray you fall in love with that person and believe you’re worth passing on. And may that, more than any set of circumstances or glorious setup, grant you confidence and assurance to adapt and create and reinvent and rethink and tear down and build back up” (pg 162).
Questions to Consider:
What hopes and dreams do you have for someone? Would you consider telling them the potential you see in them, and the person you can imagine them becoming?
What plan has gone sideways or maybe not even made if off the ground, and how can allowing disappointment, sadness, and frustration actually help you move on?
Once the dust settles and you’ve been able to grieve, what needs to happen next before you are able to take a realistic and thankful look at what you have on hand and start working from there?
What plans need to change, or what dreams might have to die (at least in part), in order for you to change and become completely a person God designed you to be?
What can you honestly say you love doing? Not just what makes you feel good, but what makes you feel like you’re a part of something bigger than yourself?
When have your strengths and gifts and talents drowned out the voices of others in the places you’ve worked or served? In the future, which of your gifts and talents could you add to (not take over) a project that isn’t yours?
Maybe you’ve been quiet too often when you should have spoke up about something you love doing. What is worth standing up for and being louder about? And how can you work with egotistical loudmouths?
What does it look like for your work to be an act of love - not sentimental feeling, but service and care and attention toward other humans?
What work have you done that did not communicate love? Why did that happen?
Where and when have you felt cared for because of the way someone did their job? What made you feel that way? How did it motivate you to do your work?
What would it look like for you to take interpersonal or professional injuries seriously while not taking them personally?
