Quotes from Timothy Lane

The lies that capture us as Christians usually seem to fit well within the borders of our Christianity.

The word remember is not a "memory" word, but a "promise" word

Jesus was willing to be the forsaken brother so that we could have godly relationships. Jesus was willing to be the crucified King so that our communities would experience peace.

Forgiveness has a vertical and a horizontal dimension

Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. 1

The hope of the gospel invites us to a holy dissatisfaction with all of our relationships, even—especially—those with few major problems.

I loved my family, but that night in the car I hit the wall of the reality of relationships in a fallen world.

Words can be powerful or they can be cheap. What makes words powerful is the action that flows from them. Theology also can be powerful or cheap. What makes right thinking about God powerful is the life that emerges daily from that theology.

Why bother with other people?

Mark 11:25 is talking about forgiveness as a heart attitude before God.

They have all faced the difficulty of having relationships with flawed people in a broken world, and they have opted to check out.

Yet something keeps dragging us back to other people. We know we are less than human when we are all alone.