“I need wonder. I know that death is coming. I smell it in the wind, read it in the paper, watch it on television, and see it on the faces of the old. I need wonder to explain what is going to happen to me, what is going to happen to us when this thing is done, when our shift is over and our kids' kids are still on the earth listening to their crazy rap music. I need something mysterious to happen after I die. I need to be somewhere else after I die, somewhere with God, somewhere that wouldn't make any sense if it were explained to me right now. At the end of the day, when I am lying in bed and I know the chances of any of our theology being exactly right are a million to one, I need to know that God has things figured out, that if my math is wrong we are still going to be okay. And wonder is that feeling we get when we let go of our silly answers, our mapped out rules that we want God to follow. I don't think there is any better worship than wonder.”
“At the end of the day, when I am lying in bed and I know the chances of any of our theology being exactly right are a million to one, I need to know that God has things figured out, that if my math is wrong we are still going to be okay. And wonder is that feeling we get when we let go of our silly answers, our mapped out rules that we want God to follow. I don't think there is any better worship than wonder.”
“I don't know what happens to our consciousness when we're unwound," says Connor. "I don't even know when that consciousness starts. But I do know this." He pauses to make sure all of them are listening. "We have a right to our lives!"The kids go wild."We have a right to choose what happens to our bodies!"The cheers reach fever pitch."We deserve a world where both those things are possible— and it's our job to help make that world.”
“I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.”
“Everyone knows they're going to die, but nobody believes it.... So we kid ourselves about death.... But there's a better approach. To know you're going to dies, and to be prepared for it at any time....Do what the Buddhists do...ask, Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?”
“I walked across an empty landI knew the pathway like the back of my handI felt the earth beneath my feetSat by the river and it made me completeOh simple thing where have you goneI'm getting old and I need something to rely onSo tell me when you're gonna let me inI'm getting tired and I need somewhere to beginI came across a fallen treeI felt the branches of it looking at meIs this the place we used to love?Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?Oh simple thing where have you goneI'm getting old and I need something to rely onSo tell me when you're gonna let me inI'm getting tired and I need somewhere to beginAnd if you have a minute why don't we goTalk about it somewhere only we know?This could be the end of everythingSo why don't we goSomewhere only we know?[break]Oh simple thing where have you goneI'm getting old and I need something to rely onSo tell me when you're gonna let me inI'm getting tired and I need somewhere to beginSo if you have a minute why don't we goTalk about it somewhere only we know?This could be the end of everythingSo why don't we goSo why don't we goThis could be the end of everythingSo why don't we goSomewhere only we know?”