William P. Young

“(Jesus speaking) "An awful lot of what is done in my name has nothing to do with me and is often, even if unintentional, very contrary to my purposes.”

“I’ve never met anyone that was all bad.Mostly bad, yes, but never all bad. Everyone was once a child,and that gives me hope for people. They just end up bringing tothe table what they have and they do what they do for a reason,even if they don’t know themselves what it is. Takes time to findit sometimes, but there is always a reason.”

“you are a beautiful mess, youare the melody…”

“Somehow the pain, the losses, the hurt, the bad, Godis able to transform these into something they could have neverbeen, icons and monuments of grace and love. It is the deepmystery how wounds and scars can become precious, or aravaging and terrifying cross the essential symbol of relentlessaffection.”“Is it worth it?” whispered Tony.“Wrong question, son. There is no ‘it.’ The question is andhas always been, ‘Are you worth it?’ and the answer is andalways, ‘Yes!’ ”

“Tony stood up and began pacing the room. “Jack,” heconfessed, “my life that I defined as a success is actually a totalshambles, and yet you’re suggesting that underneath it all, thereis an unimaginable beauty? Are you telling me that I matter?That even though I am this ugly, ordinary-looking root, that I wasdesigned and intended to express a unique and extraordinaryflower? That’s what you are telling me… right?”Jack nodded, again removing his pipe for a puff.“And I assume,” Tony continued, “this is true about everyhuman being, each person born—”“Conceived!” interrupted Jack.“Each person ‘conceived’ on the planet, each one living inlife-before, each one is a root in which a flower is waiting?Right?”Again Jack nodded”

“Cabby was saying“someday”… someday Tony would love him. He hoped it mightbe true. Perhaps Cabby knew things that he didn’t”

“You heard and felt the harmonies of light, at leastthe surface of them, but you didn’t notice, did you, that themelody was missing?”It was true, Tony had not heard a melody, just a symphony ofharmonies.“I don’t understand. What’s the missing melody?” he asked.“You, Anthony! You are the melody! You are the reason forthe existence of what you witnessed and consider soimmeasurably awe inspiring. Without you, what you perceivedwould have no meaning and no shape. Without you, it wouldhave simply… fallen apart.”

“You want to know why I live here, in this ‘hovel’; I think thatis the word you used, based on your civilized and educatedperception?”There was no use denying it. “Yes, I was wondering. Sowhy?”“It was the best you could give me.” She didn’t turn from herwork.“Excuse me? The best ‘I’ could give you? I had nothing to dowith this. I could build you something much better, but not this.How could you think…?”“It’s all right, Anthony! I have no expectations. I am grateful tohave found even this small place in your heart. I travel light”—she smiled as if at some secret thought—“and I make my homeinside the simplest gifts. There is nothing to feel bad or ashamedabout. I am thoroughly grateful, and being here is a joy!”“So… because this is me, my world somehow, I have onlymade this small place for you?”

“Transformationwithout work and pain, without suffering, without a sense of lossis just an illusion of true change.”

“Because you continue to inhabit andbelieve your metaphors, you cannot see what is true.”

“This, Tony, is a living land, not a construction site. This isreal and breathing, not a fabrication that can be bullied intobeing. When you choose technique over relationship andprocess, when you try and shortcut the speed of growingawareness and force understanding and maturity before its time,this”—he pointed down and over the length”

“Responsibilities and expectations are the basis of guilt and shame and judgement, and they provide the essential framework that promotes performance as the basis for identity and value...Honey, I've never placed an expectation on your or anyone else. The idea behind expectations requires that someone does not know the future or outcome and is trying to control behavior to get the required result. Humans try to control behavior largely through expectations. I know you and everything about you. Why would I have an expectation other than what I already know? And beyond that, because I have no expectations, you never disappoint me...What I do have is a constant and living expectancy in our relationship, and I give you an ability to respond in any situation and circumstance in which you find yourself. To the degree that you resort to expectations and responsibilities, to that extent you neither know me nor trust me...”

“The world in many ways would be a much calmer and gentler place if women ruled. There would have been fewer children sacrificed to the gods of greed and power.”

“Mackenzie, this world is full of tears, but if you remember I proimsed that it would be Me who would wipe them from your eyes.”

“Being always transcends appearance-that which only seems to be. Once you begin to know the being behind the very pretty or very ugly face, as determined by your bias, the surface appearances fade away until they simply no longer matter.”

“oh my soul...be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions”

“Why do children love to hide and seek? Ask any person who has a passion to explore and discover and create. The choice to hide so many wonders from you is an act of love that is a gift inside the process of life.”

“There is something joyful about storms that interrupt routine. Snow or freezing rain suddenly releases you from expectations, performance demands, and the tyranny of appointments and schedules. And unlike illness, it is largely a corporate rather than individual experience. One can almost hear a unified sigh rise from the nearby city and surrounding countryside where Nature has intervened to give respite to the weary humans slogging it out within her purview. All those affected this way are united by a mutual excuse, and the heart is suddenly and unexpectedly a little giddy. There will be no apologies needed for not showing up to some commitment or other. Everyone understands and shares in this singular justification, and the sudden alleviation of the pressure to produce makes the heart merry.”

“Mackenzie, judgment is not about destruction, but about setting things right.”

“Love is not the limitation; love is the flying. I am love.”

“You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.”

“Religion must use law to empower itself and control the people who they need in order to survive.”

“Since there were three of them, maybe this was a Trinity sort of thing. But two women and a man and none of them white?”

“God’s voice has been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects. It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized, while the educated Westerners’ access to God was mediated and controlled by the intelligentsia. Nobody wanted God in a box, just a book”

“Nobody knows what horrors I have saved the world from 'cuz people can't see what never happened. All evil flows from independence, and independence is your choice. If I were to simply revoke all the choices of independence, the world as you know it would cease to exist and love would have no meaning. This world is not a playground where I keep all my children free from evil. Evil is the chaos of this age that you brought to me, but it will not have the final say. Now it touches everyone that I love, those who follow me and those who don't. If I take away the consequences of people's choices, I destroy the possibilities of love. Love that is forced is no love at all.”

“You... were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around... Living unloved is like clipping a bird's wing and removing its ability to fly... A bird is not defined by being grounded but by his ability to fly. Remember this, humans are defined not by their limitations, but by the intentions I have for them; not by what they seem to be, but by everything it means to be created in my image. Love is NOT the limitation; love is the flying. I AM love. ”

“Even though you can't finally grasp me, guess what? I still want to be known.”

“Lies are a little fortress; inside them you can feel safe & powerful.”

“In some sense every parent does love their children. But some parents are too broken to love them well& others are barely able to love them at all..”

“True love never forces.”

“I am especially fond of you.”

“Through . . . lies you try to run your life and manipulate others. . . . Lies become an inhibitor in your relationship . . . .”

“Anger is the right response to something that is so wrong. But don't let the anger and pain and loss you feel prevent you from forgiving him and removing your hands from around his neck.”

“If you and I are friends, there is an expectancy that exists within our relationship. When we see each other or are apart, there is an expectancy of being together, of laughing and talking. The expectancy has no concrete definition; it is alive and dynamic and everything that emerges from our being together is a unique gift shared by no one else. ”

“I give you an ability to respond and your response is to be free to love and serve in every situation, and therefore each moment is different and unique and wonderful.”

“Responsibilites and expectations are the basis of guilt and shame and judgement, and they provide the essential framework that promotes performance as the basis for identity and value. ”

“The person who lives by his fears will not find freedom in my [God's] love. I am not talking about rational fears regarding legitimate dangers, but imagined fears, and especially the projection of those into the future. To the degree that those fears have a place in your life, you neither believe that I [God] am good nor know deep in your heart that I love you. You sing about it, you talk about it, but you don't know it.”

“Jesus picked up the conversation. "As the crowning glory of creation, you were made in Our image, unencumbered by structure and free to simply 'be' in relationship with Me and one another. If you had trully learned to regard one another's concerns as significant as your own, there would be no need for hierarchy.”

“Creation has been taken down a very different path than We [God] desired. In your world the value of the individual is constantly weighed against the survival of the system - whether political, economical, social, or religious - any system, actually. First one person, and then a few and finally even many are easily sacrificed for the good and ongoing existence of that system. In one form or another this lies behind every struggle for power every prejudice, every war, and every abuse of relationship. The 'will to power and independence' has become so ubiquitous that it is now considered normal.”

“When you chose independence over relationship, you became a danger to one another. Others became objects to be manipulated or managed for your own happiness. Authority as you usually think of it, is merely the excues the strone ones use to make others conform to what they want.”

“Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid the will to hold power over another is to chose to limit to onself - to serve. Humans often do this - in touching the infirm and sick, in serving the ones whos minds have left to wander, in relation to the poor, in loving the very old and the very young, or even in caring for the others who has assumed a position of power over them.”

“Truth will set you free. And Truth has a name...”

“Sometimes honesty can be incredibly messy”

“Paradigms power perceptions, perceptions power emotions.”

“Don't ever think that what my Son chose to do didn't cost us dearly. Love always leaves a significant mark," she stated softly and gently. "We were there together." Mack was surprised. "At the cross? Now wait. I thought you left him - you know - 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'" It was a Scripture that had often haunted Mack in The Great Sadness. "You misunderstand the mystery there. Regardless of what he felt at that moment, I never left him." "How can you say that? You abandonded him just like you abandoned me!" "Mackenzie, I never left him, and I have never left you." "That makes no sense to me," he snapped. "I know it doesn't, at least not yet. Will you at least consider this: when all you can see is your pain, perhaps then you lose sight of me?”

“I often find that getting head issues out of the way first makes the heart stuff easier to work on later.”

“God is a verb”

“oh child", spoke papa tenderly."Don't ever discount the wonder of your tears.They can be healing waters and a stream of joy.Sometimes they are the best words the heart can speak.”

“You may have to declare your forgiveness a hundred times the first day and the second day, but the third day will be less and each day after, until one day you will realize that you have forgiven completely. And then one day you will pray for his wholeness and give him over to me so that my love will burn from his life every vestige of corruption.”

“Forgiveness is first for you, the forgiver...to release you from something that will eat you alive; that will destroy your joy and your ability to love fully and openly. Do you think this man cares about the pain and torment you have gone through? If anything, he feeds on that knowledge. Don't you want to cut that off? And in doing so, you'll release him from a burden that he carries whether he knows it or not--acknowledges it or not.”