Quotes by Criss Jami

As followers of Christ, we are to be careful not to remain victims of the many cultural presuppositions of who he is, and what he teaches, insofar as taking for granted our own caricatures of him. Let it boil in both mind and heart the question, If Jesus were to appear today, how many of us would actually recognize him and his teachings (or would it simply be a recount of his first visit)?

Tension, in the long run, is a more dangerous force than any feud known to man.

After awhile you realize that putting your actions where your mouth is makes you less likely to have to put your money where your mouth is.

Many people in a rather reckless context claim to just tell it like it is. In actuality, nobody really stresses what one says so much as the motive behind what one says; hence, he is merely blowing hot air and detracting from what is.

Pride and power fall when the person falls, but discoveries of truth form legacies that can be built upon for generations.

Vivid simplicity is the articulation, the nature of genius. Wisdom is greater than intelligence; intelligence is greater than philosobabble.

From time to timeI once wondered how one wanders from time to timeAnd think up the paradox lineSpeak of Epochs crimeOh I lied, it hasnt happened yetBut bet you better believe its such a habit thatI just said that in a past mindset

When a man has a gift in speaking the truth, brute aggression is no longer his security blanket for approval. He, on the contrary, spends most of his energy trying to tone it down because his very nature is already offensive enough.

Listen to God with a broken heart. He is not only the doctor who mends it, but also the father who wipes away the tears.

Love is as simple as the absence of self given to another. God, when invited, fills the void of any unrequited love; hence loving is how one is drawn closer to God no matter its most horrific repercussions.

A lonely day is Gods way of saying that he wants to spend some quality time with you.

Im convinced that most men dont know what they believe, rather, they only know what they wish to believe. How many people blame God for mans atrocities, but wouldnt dream of imprisoning a mother for her sons crime?

The common man prays, I want a cookie right now! And God responds, If youd listen to what I say, tomorrow it will bring you 100 cookies.

God favors men and women who delight in being made worthy of happiness before the happiness itself.

The humble sinner will sometimes be interpreted as one of the filthiest in the eyes of man yet immersed in the eyes of God, and this is due to the volition of honesty regarding his own corruption.

Every time I create something, whether an idea or a work of art, initially, its supposed completion seems absolutely perfect to me. However the more I think about it, stare it down, the more it marinates in my soul over the hours, days, and weeks, the more flaws I start to find in it; and finally, the more Im pressed to continue enhancing it. It essentially turns out that whatever thing a flawed and imperfect, human eye once thought was amazing begins to appear quite wretched. This is why, eternally, God cannot be impressed by mere talents or by mortal achievements. To perfect eyes, I imagine that great is not really that great; rather, humility is ultimately a human beings true greatness.

Those who live as though God sets the rules are not going by their own rules. That is the self-sacrifice, or selflessness, that peace more often than not requires. Those who insist on going by their own rules cannot make that sacrifice. They are the steady adherents of (global) conflict because they are forever fighting both themselves and others to do whatever they think that they want to do.

I sit and ponder my existence: how Im here, what put me here in these thoughts, these feelings, birthed from a timeless sleep, what it felt like, or rather the lack thereof, to not have been and now to be, and suddenly, I realize how absurd I am to exist, the fragility in my understanding of existence; I then wonder why the supernatural, the thought of other beings, of God or of gods, must be distinctly absurd - by which I am no longer sure. If I exist and I have made myself absurd to me, then why not they exist while merely believed absurd by me? Perhaps it is true that in a wandering head, one full of wonders, the natural becomes supernatural and the supernatural becomes preternatural (or rational within the sights of discovery and explanation), just as the return home after a life-long journey feels, for a moment, foreign after the many experiences.

My belief is that, morally, God and Satan are vaguely on the same page. According to the common understanding of Satans origins, holiness must be in his blood: but a corrupted formula. The vital difference is that God is willing to offer grace for our sins; he delights in grace. God is the one and only holy and just punisher of sin, yes, but that is partly so because punishment for the sake of punishment is not something he loves. Whereas Satan, as the accuser, and as it is written, actually seeks Gods permission to punish; he, being a seasoned legalist, delights in finding wrongs and will defy his own morality just to expose immorality. This is why both the anti-religious soul and the violently religious soul are, whether consciously or unconsciously, and sadly enough, glorifying their biggest hater: Satan is not only a lawless lover of punishing lawlessness, but also the greatest theologian of us all. He loves wickedness, but only because he loves punishing wickedness.

Great minds think alike because a greater Mind is thinking through them.