Quotes about Intimacy

Our first experience of life is primarily felt in the *body.* ... We know ourselves in the security of those who hold us and gaze upon us. It's not heard or seen or thought it's felt. That's the original knowing.

It really works very well, but the trouble is that it feels so godly that much, if not most, religion is a belonging system more than a search for intimacy with God. Jesus was not into tribal religion, groupthink, and loyalty tests. Much of the institutional church is into them, however, and always has been. It works too well to call it into question. It holds us together and that feels like salvation, even if it is a very deteriorated form.

Allow yourself to be fully known, and you will know what you need to know.

Fullness in a person cannot permit love because there are no openings, no handles, no give-and-take, and no deep hunger.

By the feminine principle I mean everything vulnerable, interior, powerless, subtle, personal, intimate, and relational. By the masculine principle I mean everything clear, rational, linear, ordered, in control, bounded, provable, and hard. Both the feminine and masculine are good, but they must balance each other.

Pretentiousness repels but authenticity attracts, and vulnerability is the pathway to intimacy.

You are as close to God as you choose to be.

This is what God wants most from you: a relationship!

POINT TO PONDER: I'm as close to God as I choose to be.

It's encouraging to know that all of God's closest friends — Moses, David, Abraham, Job, and others — had bouts with doubt. But instead of masking their misgivings with pious clichés, they candidly voiced them openly and publicly. Expressing doubt is sometimes the first step toward the next level of intimacy with God.

Dear Jesus, more than anything else, I want to get to know you intimately.

The essence of love is not what we think or do or provide for others, but how much we give of ourselves. Men, in particular, often don't understand this. Many have said to me, "I don't understand my wife and kids. I provide everything they need. What more could they want?" They want you! Your eyes, your ears, your time, your attention, your presence, your focus