Is it any wonder why church is so important? Some think they can live the Christian life without a strong local fellowship, but I'm not one of them. I know how important it is for me to unite with others to fix my mind on what is right, pure, lovely, and admirable—to think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. What's on your mind? Is it excellent?

The question for each of us is one of housekeeping. Are there attitudes or actions we have allowed to take root in our life that are keeping us from the pursuit of holiness?

Identity always precedes behavior. What you need is someone to come alongside you and help you remember who you are and to whom you belong.

It takes a long time to ruin a life. It all starts with the stories we live by.

is true. We change not by mustering up willpower but by changing the way we think, which will also involve changing our actions and our social environment. We change indirectly. We do what we can.

It seems that I always am and always have been an outsider. I've never really fit in. I was always too religious for my rowdy friends—they thought I was unbelievably hung up—and too rowdy for my religious friends—they were always praying for me.

Even though I have not mastered it, I now have a better sense of what makes us want others to think well of us, and how we can prevent that desire from ruling in our hearts. False Narrative: My Value Is Determined by Your Assessment

Apart from the museums that anchor the great cities of Europe and America, the Roman Catholic Church is what remains of "Christendom," the generating aesthetic and intellectual tradition of Western civilization.

The relevance of the church is not found in its capitulation to culture but in its transformation of culture.

In a society where rationality has ruled so long, the church frequently fails to see that in forsaking the weekly pursuit of the transcendent, we have given up the only ground that was uniquely ours in this world. In attempting to make the church something that can attract and add value to secular mind-sets, we have turned our backs on our one true proposition - transcendence.

When we shift from personal purity to personal happiness, we lose biblical hope because we are not focusing on God's agenda, we are focusing on our own. God's agenda is guaranteed on our agenda is not.

You don't get to a better place with God until you recognize that where you are is not as good.