Quotes about Openness

One of our pastors, John Hambrick, has a saying that we've adopted organization-wide. He says, "We walk toward the messes." In other words, we don't feel compelled to sort everything or everyone out ahead of time. We are not going to spend countless hours creating policies for every eventuality.

One of the primary reasons we don't seek counsel from the wise people around us is that we already know what we are going to hear—and we just don't want to hear it.

Most of us want to be proven right more than we want to know what's true. We aren't on truth quests. We're on confirmation quests.

Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you're not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn't planned or counted on.

Fascist movements kill off their critics, literally or metaphorically, while democratic movements value, invite and even welcome criticism.

I've always been interested in many different things.

A university is supposed to be a place where all ideas are discussed.

I am a faithful companion of Jesus. I probably wasn't when I was 12 or 13 when I was in the convent, but I think having a spiritual side means that you live your life with an open heart, and you embrace things that are difficult, you want people to do well.

Godly teachers encourage questions; those who demand unthinking agreement have something to hide.

Jesus didn't care about a "holy table" as the religious establishment defined "holy." For Jesus a holy table was one that was open to anyone, a table where all God's children were present.

Our society is just less open to platitudes, more open to stories.

The fact that you are willing to say, 'I do not understand, and it is fine,' is the greatest understanding you could exhibit.