Gerald L. Sittser Quotes

#1. Prayer is the one discipline in the Christian faith that makes us feel entirely dependent on God and thus sets us up for profound disappointment when God doesn't respond to our needs and requests.

Gerald L. Sittser

#2. The book is intended to show how it is possible to live in and be enlarged by loss, even as we continue to experience it.

Gerald L. Sittser

#3. I did not get over the loss of my loved ones; rather, I absorbed the loss into my life, like soil receives decaying matter, until it became a part of who I am.

Gerald L. Sittser

#4. The central theme of the book is that prayer is best understood as a long, sometimes perilous, epic journey that eventually leads to triumph.

Gerald L. Sittser

#5. My prayer as you read this book is that you will find comfort for the disappointment of unanswered prayer, but also courage to continue on the epic journey that prayer is.

Gerald L. Sittser

#6. But life here is not the end. Reality is more than we think it to be. There is another and greater reality that envelops this earthly one. Earth is not outside heaven, as the philosopher Peter Kreeft wrote; it is heaven's workshop, heaven's womb.

Gerald L. Sittser

#7. I had no way of anticipating the adjustments I would have to make and the suffering I would have to endure in the months and years ahead.

Gerald L. Sittser

#8. The good that may come out of the loss does not erase its badness or excuse the wrong done. Nothing can do that.

Gerald L. Sittser

#9. I see now that my faith was becoming an ally rather than an enemy because I could vent anger freely, even toward God, without fearing retribution.

Gerald L. Sittser

#10. The quickest way for anyone to reach the sun and the light of day is not to run west, chasing after the setting sun, but to head east, plunging into the darkness until one comes to the sunrise.

Gerald L. Sittser

#11. Although unanswered prayer is indeed a theme of the book, it is not the heart of the book, for unanswered prayer describes a problem but offers no solutions.

Gerald L. Sittser

#12. It is how we respond to loss that matters. That response will largely determine the quality, the direction, and the impact of our lives.

Gerald L. Sittser