Here are some quotes from Destiny, Meaning, and Seek.
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"You cannot live the life God created you to live without being ambitious. The reason your heart leaps when you see greatness is that your spirit is drawn to it. The reason we can experience the vicarious exhilaration of a great victory or an amazing accomplishment is that the human spirit resonates with greatness. While many of us have come to believe ambition is unhealthy, the truth is when you lose ambition, you lose your future. When you lose your future, you lose hope. And no one can live well without hope. Without ambition we have no dreams worth living. When we let our dreams die, we start dying with them."
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"God created us to engage, solve problems, meet needs, do something with our lives. He made us to get involved and expects us to act. That’s why someone like Mother Teresa helps us believe in God. Human compassion reflects God and moves us toward God."
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"We were created to believe in progress and to pursue it with passion. It is God who designed us this way. He made us creative, and he holds us responsible. Somehow there are many of us who have missed this point. We have allowed human history to be shaped by those who do not reflect God’s value for love, for beauty, and for justice."
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"Humans are not content to simply survive, we are driven to thrive. It’s not enough for us to merely exist; we are compelled to achieve. This drive would not even exist without a concept of time. We understand that each day is not a reoccurring cycle of static events. The human experience is not only that time moves, but that we do too. We have been created with not only awareness but a need for progress."
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"Take a few minutes sometime and find your nearest cemetery. Walk through the memorials there representing the lives of a countless number of people who lived before you. You will see different dates of birth and times of death, but they will all have one thing in common—the dash between the two. To everyone who is a stranger, our dash will be just that, a space holder in between the pertinent information. But for those who know us, the dash represents the totality of our lives."
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"Is it possible that the reason we find God in our deepest despair is that this is when we are most earnestly listening?"
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"Atheist, agnostic, existentialist, humanist, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Christian—we all need to believe that somehow our lives matter. There is a reason for our existence, a reason to live, and if we can’t find it, we’ll just make it up. And if we lack imagination, then we’ll just medicate ourselves, sedate ourselves, intoxicate ourselves, indulge ourselves, deceive ourselves, or just simply come to the end of ourselves."
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"To go beyond feeling, to go beyond compassion, you have to believe that it is right to act, that you were created to bring change. If Jesus was nothing else, he was an activist for change. To be a follower of Christ is to believe that everyone’s life can be different. No one is defined by the status of their birth. Our destiny is not limited to our pedigree. Every human being is of equal value to God. No one must remain a prisoner of fate."
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"Faith is simply the word for trust when used in relation to God."
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"Over the years, I found that cynicism is a way of escape. You’ve believed, you’ve trusted, you’ve put yourself out there, and you’ve gotten hurt. Someone lied to you, or betrayed you, or maybe it was even God. He just didn’t show when you needed him. So you retreat to the only place you know to go. You go hide inside your own soul and decide that you can trust no one but yourself. In the end, this is at the heart of the path that leads us to trust only in ourselves."
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"God himself stepped into human history so that we would know that he is not only the source of truth, but that he is utterly and completely trustworthy."
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"Whatever religion is used to manipulate or control people, I consider it the enemy of humanity and the enemy of God."
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"Never let anyone tell you that God is offended by your questions. Your questions will lead you to God. Your soul craves meaning even as it longs for God. To search for one is to find the other. Go ahead—question everything. We’re all trying to make sense of this life that we’ve been thrown into. A lot of times the world doesn’t help the process at all. We experience pain, disappointment, tragedy, betrayal. It fills us with doubt and bitterness and leaves us confused. I love that God understands that, that he knows life’s a struggle."
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"Some people who do not believe in God are consistent and don’t believe in love either. No primary evidence. In fact, my nonscientific research has found a direct correlation between losing faith in love and losing faith in God. But for many people it is at this point where they simply live with the inconsistency. You can’t see God; you can’t prove God in the laboratory. Believing in God is a stretch, but they believe in love. But you can’t see love. You can’t prove love. The only evidence available is secondary. No primary evidence. Yet when you love someone, you are more certain of that than of almost anything else. Love reminds us there is a knowing beyond reason."
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"For love to exist it doesn’t even require reciprocation."
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"No matter how hard your life is, if you can imagine a different one, it somehow seems to pull you through. You can stomach who you are, no matter how much you hate yourself, if you can somehow believe that one day you’ll become someone different."
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"I guess it will never be easy, but Jesus made it possible. You don’t have to be afraid to commit your life to someone who gives his life for you."
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This book is a great read for a person who is new to Christianity or doesn't really know what they believe.
Even though that is who I think McManus wrote the book for, I still enjoyed it very much. Seriously, check it out.
Peace.
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