Craig D. Lounsbrough Quotes & Sayings

God's eyes readily see beyond our actions, for our actions are simply fear and selfishness pretending to be us. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Risk is the stuff that sucks the predictability right out of the very things that we desperately wish were predictable. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Although I am far too frequently convinced otherwise, with God a dead-end is only the death of an end. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

It's not a lack of opportunity around me. Rather, it's a lack of faith within me. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

To even begin to embrace the magnitude of God's vision, we must first embrace our vision as being nothing more than vision by definition. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

The hands of man can manufacture many things both penetratingly brilliant and utterly astounding. Yet, despite their amazing dexterity and profound skill they cannot manufacture hope. Such a masterpiece as that is left for the hands of God and a manger crafted by those hands. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Fear is a lethal killer of dreams, the greatest cancer that has beset passion, and a ruthless thief of lives stolen and buried in the decay of lives squandered. Yet the greatest tragedy of all is that the fear that destroys us is rarely the monster it pretends to be, nor does it possess anything close to the power that we grant it. Therefore, it is only a killer, a cancer and a thief because we empower it to be so. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

We must leave Christmas to be what it is, for to reduce it to the stuff of myth and whimsy is take the single and sole hope of a dying humanity and obliterate it. And I would contend that such an action is insanity of the greatest sort. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

I would be quite wise to realize that I will never craft a solution that will be the 'end-all,' and that God's ability to craft perfect solutions never ends 'at-all. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Rarely do I truly understand the disease which ails me. Therefore, rarely do I truly understand the fix that would cure me. And so maybe I should truly contemplate how rarely I recognize that God understands both. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

If we've somehow become convinced that the script we followed 'yesterday' can't be edited, it will be incredibly difficult to tell the difference between 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow'. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

What rubs off on me is hard to rub off. So, I'd better figure out what I rubbing up against. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

There is a deep dryness of the soul and all of the recalcitrant contrivances of man to quench his own thirst will bring not a single drop of moisture to those parched places, for God and God alone holds the water that satiates the soul. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Greatness demands that I understand that I am not nearly as big as I thought myself to be, but that I am capable of becoming far bigger than I ever imagined myself to be. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

We incessantly vacillate between what's behind us and what's before us depending on the current barometer of our courage and the ambivalent nature of our vision. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Will I live yearning for a world that I need not yearn for because the message of Christmas is entirely undaunted in its ability to handily penetrate and completely subjugate the very world that I doubt its ability to survive in? — Craig D. Lounsbrough

The key to understanding if something is truly precious is to ask if we can hold it, for things truly precious cannot be held. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Things that are truly great need nothing from me, and to somehow think that they do speaks to my utter lack of greatness. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

If God created great things with a point of vulnerability, it would lie in the reality that great things die in the hands of great ignorance. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

If my heart is set on pursuing real treasures, my mind must be fixed solely on the privilege of enjoying them and freed of the obsession of owning them. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

My life is a series of invitations accepted and invitations rejected, and the place I now find myself is often a result of accepting the wrong invitations and rejecting the right ones. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Mediocrity is the companion of passivity and will not heed the call of great things. Courage is the companion of sacrifice and cannot help but heed the call of great things. And we are left of our own accord to choose one or the other. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

The 'fact' of my actions frequently collide with the 'fiction' of my words. And at what point will I live what I say, so I will avoid what I do? — Craig D. Lounsbrough

To 'pretend' is to say that I'm willing to waste the precious energy that it takes to pretend, and I'm unwilling to cultivate the bravery that it takes to be real. And I am at a complete loss to pretend that either of these aren't true. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Where am I?" you ask. Where you are is where the things you've denied worshipping have taken you. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Simply giving something 'a shot' is not giving something our 'best,' for our best is made up of as many 'shots' as it takes in order to be our best. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

The ledger of my life can lean heavy with a prolific array of stellar investments, yet in the tallying I would be wise to remember that an investment that is not of God will leave a zero balance on the ledger of my life no matter how many different ways I try to add it up. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Often the first step in our own resurrection is realizing how dead we really are. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Most of our fears are borrowed. Since that's the case, we should get busy returning them. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

When surrounded by the ashes of all that I once cherished, despite my best efforts I can find no room to be thankful. But standing there amidst endless ash I must remember that although the ashes surround me, God surrounds the ashes. And once that realization settles upon me, I am what I thought I could never be ... I am thankful for ashes. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

In the deepest darkness God tenderly grasps my hand and whispers that darkness is nothing more than a place that He is preparing for the arrival of light. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Impulsivity is something akin to spontaneously jumping out of an airplane and not realizing that you forgot something until about five seconds before impact. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Despite my incessant desperation, I simply cannot paint the perfect picture within which I would wish to live out my life. And because I cannot, God picked up the brush of love, positioned the canvas of history and painted a manger. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Thankfulness is an attitude of possibilities, not an attitude of liabilities. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

To grasp love, I must grasp the fact that it is a creation of God and therefore it is forever beyond me. But the very fact that it is forever beyond me is the very thing that prompts me to forever pursue it. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

We myopically stare at the gaping hole left in our lives and see nothing but the hole, not realizing a hole is defined by everything around it that is not a hole. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

We have errantly romanticized love as something we freely get verses something we sacrifice for in the giving. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

If I am sufficiently brave to extract the cancer of fear, I have effectively gutted my conviction that what stands before me is impossible. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

I often think myself to be so ingenious that I don't even realize that my own plans may actually be my own undoing. Therefore, I might be wise to realize that God's plans undo what I've done that's undoing me. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

God's decision to reach out in such dramatic fashion as to lay all rightful privilege aside and be born into abject destitution tells us that His passion for us exceeds our desire for Him. And maybe we should commit to evening that up a bit. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Without unreservedly surrendering myself to God, whatever place I might raise myself to remains nothing more than a step or possibly two off the hard basement floor of life, for of myself I can be utterly assured that I will never step out of the basement. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

True peace cannot be found in a 'place'. Rather, it is found in a Person who can be with you in any 'place'. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Of course God does outrageous things. But in reality, what insanity would prompt me to follow a God who did anything less? — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Being our best is asking how can we take ourselves to the precipice of our own limits in any and every situation? — Craig D. Lounsbrough

There are consequences to ignoring consequences that are a consequence of my blatant unwillingness to learn from my consequences. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

The strewn and tangled wreckage that litters our lives is the precious raw material from which great beginnings are forged. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

One sure way I can avoid facing myself is by refusing to look into the face of God. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

If I assume the 'truth' to be negotiable based on whether or not it serves my agenda, then my agenda has become my 'truth.' And the 'truth' of the matter is, when I do this I've chosen to take a treacherous path through some very deep woods where neither path nor woods exist. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Opportunity is present is wreckage as much as it is in that which is wonderful. It's not so much how it comes to us, but what we do with it. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

A true work of art is shaped by the hands of another, and if in shaping us that 'other' is anything other than God, the piece will never touch the remotest periphery of its potential. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Love that is fueled solely by feelings will suddenly find itself out of gas on a long road with no gas stations. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

I decry the injustice of my wounds, only to look down and see that I am holding a smoking gun in one hand and a fistful of ammunition in the other. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

We may simply take a chainsaw sort of approach thinking that the nature of the response is irrelevant so we just have at it, rather than taking scalpel in hand and doing something a bit more clean and surgical. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Kicking the can down the road implies that we're accepted the galling reality that whatever it is that we've avoiding, it's something that's not going to go away; at least on its own. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Do I dare believe such an absurdly outrageous story that a man would die, lay lifeless in some tomb for three days and then somehow live again? Yet, if I dare to consider it, is that not exactly what I so desperately desire for this lifeless life of mine? And is Easter God's tenderly outrageous way of telling me that that is exactly what I can have? — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Loss is an invitation to a journey of unparalleled growth, yet we seldom RSVP the invitation. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Ask someone about their day before you ask yourself how you're going to get through yours. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

It has nothing to do with who I am as compared to everyone else. It has everything to do with who I am in companionship with God. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Faith revels in the liberating fact that only a terribly miniscule part of life lies within the constricted confines of my reach, and that I am graciously invited out to live in a place beyond my grasp. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Rhetoric can be easily recognized for it is delightfully sweet sounding but it is utterly void of sacrifice, which means it is utterly void of substance. Christmas is irrefutable evidence that God never engages in rhetoric. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

To assume that I can even begin to chart a 'straight' path is probably the best way I can take myself 'straight' to the very place I don't want to go. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

I think we need to consider a radical rewrite of any form of patriotism that serves the individual at the expense of the community, as that is nothing more than patriotism to one's own small and solitary cause. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

There appears to be value in getting past a mentality that good things can only rest in good things. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Common sense implies a cup of wisdom, a dash of discernment, and a dollop of intellectual acumen that's blended clean and translucent. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Intelligence without wisdom is nothing more than stupidity that looks smart. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Too often fantasy is not a rich elaboration of life designed to enhance our existence, rather it is our pell-mell escape from life with the intent of exiting this existence. And the most imaginative fantasy of all is to somehow think that I can do that in the first place. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Despite our battered exterior and in spite of the festering scars and rank filth that overlays it, there is underneath it all the pristine likeness of God Himself. And we would be wise to cast an eye not on the marred exterior, but to be fixed on the glorious interior. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

If left to my own simplistic devices and the sorely scant limits of my abilities, would I not die a death of the blandest sort imaginable? And should I not thank God that He graciously gifted me with an imagination that renders such a death entirely unimaginable? — Craig D. Lounsbrough

If we ignorantly act to solely serve our agenda, we're simply slogging around in the egocentric and brackish backwaters of selfishness. Any response that comes out of that kind of cesspool will be vulgarly irresponsible. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

How many times has our conscience firmly prompted us to 'draw the line,' and we showed up with an eraser? — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Love is about investing in the best interest of another without regard to our own interest. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Everything that I hold will eventually be gone. Subsequently, the quality of my life will depend on whether I choose to appreciate those things 'now' or wait until 'then. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

In evaluating ourselves, we tend to be long on our weaknesses and short on our strengths. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

If I wholly unleash my imagination and forcefully stretch it out beyond its own edges, even at such a point I can only imagine a thin shard of this most immense God. And even though it is but a thin shard, it will nonetheless be mesmerizingly colossal. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

If we can ignore an issue long enough and distance ourselves from it far enough, we can actually make it look as if it belongs to someone else altogether. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Our actions in the present build the staircase to the future. The question is whether that staircase is going up or down. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

What insanity causes a king abandon the comforts of his kingdom and willfully discard the privileges of royalty in order to save an ornery and rebellious people who have spent a lifetime rejecting him? We have yet to understand that such an action is nothing of insanity. Rather, it is everything of love. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

To enjoy beauty in the company of myself is to experience beauty bound by the limits of the sole person that I am. But, to experience beauty in the company of God is to experience beauty bound by the limits of Who God is, which is to experience beauty without limits. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Christmas is God deciding to become what He never had been, so that we can become what we never could be. And so, God does the most improbable thing imaginable. He orchestrates His own birth. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Words can be honed to crafted perfection by the finest wordsmiths. Yet, if we trust solely in the expanse of them to explain this God of ours or articulate our experience of Him, we will have brutally destroyed the very things we are attempting to explain. And if I should do that, no words can describe how badly I wish I had no words. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

It's about recognizing that the great movements and moments in history laid on the backs of ordinary people who simply chose to do extraordinary things. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

To love those who hate us is to refuse to borrow their hatred. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

An inheritance is what you leave with people. A legacy is what you leave in them. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

To fill the fathomless caverns of my thirsty soul I must work entirely contrary to impulses of my own humanity, for it is in emptying myself at the very point where I am most empty that I fill myself. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Prayer is one action where I lay aside my abilities to immerse myself wholly in God's capabilities. And the liberation found in such an action is less about being engaged with God and more about being freed from myself. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

God's genius is as wide as the cosmos, while by comparison our intelligence can find room on the head of a pin. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

To be thankful when my world lays in ashes long gone cold is to finally understand that ashes are the raw materials from which God shapes dreams infinitely grander than whatever the ashes were before they were ashes. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

To forget is to blithely toss aside the hard lessons that were hard won by others before us, thereby needlessly dooming us to endure the hard lessons that are likely to be forgotten by those who will follow us. And it is altogether reasonable that in order to avoid this repetitive trouncing, God graciously granted us memories. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Pain and love are not the 'either or' of life, being somehow mutually exclusive. Opposite though they may be, it is the energy of the friction between them that when harnessed, molds us into Christ-likeness. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Mediocrity is a path cleared by fear, leveled by apathy and paved by comfort. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

It might not be about perfection. Rather, it may be that that which is imperfect is that which has the most character. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Freedom brings the privilege to make decisions and the need to learn once again how to rightly make them. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

More times than I'm willing to admit I am my own worst enemy, which suggests that more times than I'm willing to admit I should allow God to be my own best friend. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

To attempt to know myself 'apart' from God is to choose to know nothing more than 'a part' of myself. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Fear left unrestrained always leaves us running 'from' something. Fear harnessed compels us to run 'to' something. And fear denied leaves us running in circles. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

It is not the chains of some tyrant that robs us of freedom. Rather, it is the staleness of our attitude. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Good relentlessly calls us to accountability, abjectly refusing to hand us free passes for poor choices and unethical decisions. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

The greatest gains that we will ever experience arise from the greatest sacrifices that we have ever known. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

To fully understand how utterly amazing we really are we must first understand all of the things about us that are not, and then we must make our habitation where they are not. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Ignorance might be bliss, but it also has teeth. — Craig D. Lounsbrough