Karon Quotes & Sayings

Don't fear whatever God lays before you today. — Jan Karon

is asked of us in our time,' the writer said, 'is that we break open our blocked caves and find each other. Nothing less will heal the anguished spirit, nor release the heart to act in love. — Jan Karon

When we turn from our sin, and have the blessed forgiveness of the Almighty, then we can ask Him to run things, and let Him be in charge. — Jan Karon

Human nature is what we were put on this earth to rise above. K. Hepburn in The African Queen — Jan Karon

God our Father, Lord and Savior, thank you for your love and favor, bless this food and drink we pray, and Irene who shares with me today. Amen. — Jan Karon

Alis volat propiss. (She flies with her own wings.) — Jan Karon

When his flock thronged into the midnight service, there was wonder on every face at the newly hung greens and the softly flickering candles on each windowsill. To the simple beauty of the historic church was added fresh, green hope, the lush scent of flowers in winter, and candle flame that cast its flickering shadows over the congregation like a shawl. — Jan Karon

I really care about my readers. I care about anyone who reads my books. — Jan Karon

My work is awfully labored just now. Sometimes it has the most wondrous life of its own, it fairly pulls me along - rather like wind surfing! At other times, it drags and mopes, so that I despair of ever writing another word or drawing another picture. I've found that if one keeps pushing along during the mopes, out will flash the most exhilarating thought or idea - a way of doing something that I had never seen before - and then, one is off again, and hold on to your hat! — Jan Karon

Well, I'm going to church. But i've got to tell you that it's full of hypocrites.
My friend, if you keep your eyes on Christians, you will be disappointed every day of your life. Your hope is to keep your eyes on Christ. — Jan Karon

One of the things that makes a dead leaf fall to the ground is the bud of the new leaf that pushes it off the limb. — Jan Karon

I stepped out on faith to follow my lifelong dream of being an author. I made real sacrifices and took big risks. But living, it seems to me, is largely about risk. — Jan Karon

I'd like you to know that I have forgiven him. Again and again. Once done, course, back comes the Enemy to persecute and persecute, and I must ante up to God and forgive yet again. — Jan Karon

The dark book has been terribly popular. Dark characters, dysfunction, and all sorts of things from reality that are true in our world. — Jan Karon

Thank you for patience that you may reward it, thank you for brokenness that you may mend it, thank you for love that you may enlarge it above our most heartfelt expectations. — Jan Karon

To do it all and deprive others of doing is ... a misguided notion. — Jan Karon

Sorrow and joy, he thought, so inextricably entwined that he could scarcely tell where one left off and the other began. — Jan Karon

Boldly! That was the great and powerful key. Preach boldly! Love boldly! Jog boldly! And most crucial of all, do not approach God whining or begging, but boldly - as a child of the King. "I — Jan Karon

I've put everything I had and I've given my readers 120 percent, and that's the truth. — Jan Karon

Loving can be hard. Sometimes we don't feel loving, but it isn't all about feeling. Very often it is about will. Practice that if you can. — Jan Karon

Did I tell you how much I liked your sermon on Sunday?" "You did not, or I would have remembered it." "Well, it was glorious. You were very bold, I thought, to preach on sin. Hardly anyone wants to hear sin preached." "Mainstream Christianity glosses over the fact that it isn't just a question of giving up sin, but of doing something far more difficult - giving up our right to ourselves." He made the turn onto the busy highway toward Wesley, which always, somehow, seemed a shock to his senses. "The sin life in us must be transformed into the spiritual life." "How?" "Through sacrifice and obedience." She smiled ironically. "How do you think that will be received by those of us who come to sit in a comfortable pew and find a hot seat instead? "They'll just have to go across the street until I've finished preaching on that particular subject." She laughed with delight. "You're different these days." He laughed with her. "I pray so," he said. — Jan Karon

Rejoice! Know that I am with you and for you and will never leave you; take courage that I will fight for you and be your shield and buckler and provide for you when you are old; I will supply your every need, I will give you victory over death, I have prepared a place for you in heaven — Jan Karon

As long as you have any floor space at all, you have room for books! Just make two stacks of books the same height, place them three or four feet apart, lay a board across them, and repeat. Viola! Bookshelves! — Jan Karon

Well, I think some people are very happy in retirement. And in a year and a half I'm going to see how happy I feel in retirement. I'm just going to not work quite so hard, but I'll continue to write as long as God gives me breath. — Jan Karon

No matter how far we travel, the memories will follow in the baggage car. — Jan Karon

graced lawn parties at Fernbank." Hoppy stood and applauded. — Jan Karon

Come sit on my lap,' she said. Soon, very soon, he would think himself too big for lap-sitting. He got down from his chair and she picked him up; he was solid as anything. She held him close and swayed her body a little, like a cradle rocking, and soon he looked at her with the lovely solemnity that seemed to be a hallmark of their Jack Tyler, and said, ' I could prob'ly have a deviled egg now. — Jan Karon

Maybe it's because he never had any control over what was happening to him as a boy. Being late was somehow a way of taking charge. — Jan Karon

In everything, give thanks. — Jan Karon

I try to put my heart out there to everybody. They don't have to be Christian. For example, I have lots of Jewish readers. I love my Jewish readers. — Jan Karon

One must begin somewhere, sometime, to let go of the bitterness, or be eaten alive and the marrow sucked out. — Jan Karon

My friend, if you keep your eyes on Christians, you will be disappointed every day of your life. Your hope is to keep your eyes on Christ." "Yes, — Jan Karon

Even the roughest character, underneath all that hurt, is someone who wants to love and be loved. — Jan Karon

He turned away for a moment, smacked by the beauty of complete surprise. — Jan Karon

I believe that's when God first started speaking to my heart
the very day I started speaking to His! — Jan Karon

When the trees and the power lines crashed around you, when the very roof gave way above you, when the light turned to darkness and water turned to dust, did you call on Him?
When you called on Him, was He somewhere up there, or was He as near as your very breath? — Jan Karon

In Ireland there's no such thing as bad weather ~~~ only the wrong clothes.
(In the Company of Others) — Jan Karon

Father, he prayed silently, thank you for sending this boy into my life. Thank you for the joy and the sorrow he brings. Be with him always, to surround him with right influences, and when tests of any kind must come, give him wisdom and strength to act according to your will. Look over his mother, also, and the other children, wherever they are. Feed and clothe them, keep them from harm, and bring them one day into a full relationship with your Son. — Jan Karon

For a very long time, I wrote a book a year, and was eager and willing to do it, to put bread on the table, to have my work out there. Now I must write a book every two years, and that's never enough time, either. — Jan Karon

Bottom line, wasn't life itself a special occasion? — Jan Karon

the trees began to form — Jan Karon

Cynics will say there are no good people out there. And if you read the papers and watch TV news you could be convinced of that. But there are good people. — Jan Karon

There are so many people who don't know small towns exist. When I write, I want to give my readers two things: one is a sense of consolation, and two, I want to make them laugh. — Jan Karon

There's nothing trite about being consoled in a world that does everything in its power to deliver sorrow. — Jan Karon

He liked familiar things, things that had been worn in by good people, people he could trust. — Jan Karon

Why can't life always be lived under the stars,' she said, 'with great music and family and friends? — Jan Karon

My life is extremely full and wretchedly busy, and I feel that while my life drains energy from my work, my work in turn drains energy from my life. The result is, I am always playing catch-up spiritually. That is my thorn. — Jan Karon

We look for visions of heaven," Oswald Chambers had written, "and we never dream that all the time God is in the commonplace things and people around us." He — Jan Karon

But "common sense is not faith," Oswald Chambers had written, "and faith is not common sense. — Jan Karon

We are not necessarily doubting," said C. S. Lewis, "that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be." He — Jan Karon

Father, make me a blessing to someone today, through Christ our Lord. Amen. — Jan Karon

Then he prayed for ( ... ) and all the rest who made up his world. — Jan Karon

Cutcutcutcutcutcut . . . At 4:10, the machine lifted off the roof of Mitford Hospital and, in the starless night, burned itself away. — Jan Karon

Knitting, he thought, was a comfort to the soul. — Jan Karon

The waters hold all heaven within their heart. — Jan Karon

The firefly only shines when on the wing, So it is with us
when we stop, we darken. — Jan Karon

I grew up hearing words like snakeroot, sassafras, mullein - things that had wondrous, mysterious sounds in their names. — Jan Karon

Your goodness to me has been overwhelming. How tender you are, though I am often as tough as gristle. How patiently you have loved me since you made up your mind to love me always. — Jan Karon

I have just four words to leave with you. Four words that have spoken volumes of truth into my life.'
He wanted the words to stay in the room, to remain long after he had gone. Though no one wished to hear Paul's radical injunction, it had to be told.
'In everything, give thanks.'
This was the lifeboat in any crisis. Over and over again, he had learned this, and over and over again, he had to be reminded. — Jan Karon

My first novel is loaded with food references largely because my cupboards were bare, and I was writing hungry. — Jan Karon

I can't say I have any confidence in confidence. I have confidence that God is with us in all things, both tender and tough. — Jan Karon

Merry Christmas!' someone shouted.
He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
'Merry Christmas!'
'Merry Christmas!'
'C-cookies for ever'body!' Sammy hollered. And looking both ways, they all fled across to the light, and the warmth, and the books, and the mystery. — Jan Karon

I live in a village where people still care about each other, largely. — Jan Karon

Bonhoeffer said it's not about hero worship, but intimacy with God. — Jan Karon

He remembered the gravestone of a woman parishioner in the churchyard of St. John's in the Grove. DEMURE AT LAST, it read. He thought that the single most definitive and amusing epitaph he'd ever come across. — Jan Karon

Lord, make me a blessing to someone today. — Jan Karon

Did you hear the one about the funeral procession?

Well, this funeral procession was goin' up the hill to the church and the back door of the hearse flew open and out shoots the casket and, blametty blam, down the hill it goes through the intersection with horns blowin' and people dodgin' out of the way, and it runs on down the street and jumps up on the sidewalk and busts in through the pharmacy door and shoots down the aisle to the druggist and the lid pops up and this guy sits up and says: 'Got anything to stop this coffin? — Jan Karon

This is a gift that God has given me. I'm not smart enough to write for everybody, but it's the love in these books that comes from Him and goes out to my reading audience. I'm forever grateful for that. It's a privilege. — Jan Karon

He was praying the Psalms, as he'd done in times past, with the enemies of King David translated into his own enemies of fear and remorse and self-loathing, which, in their legions, had become as armies of darkness. — Jan Karon

It was a wonderful life. To have a stage play right in this room, with real people acting real parts. — Jan Karon

Father Tim: Know that God has a plan for your future. Watch and wait for his timing, and when it comes, hitch a ride. You'll know. — Jan Karon

So many people don't know that God loves them. They feel, 'Why would God love me? Why would He be interested in me?' — Jan Karon

As worthless as guilt was known to be, he couldn't help feeling it, seeing his wife work herself to exhaustion for a parish tea that would last only two hours. — Jan Karon

There is no such thing as too many deviled eggs. — Jan Karon

Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know thee as thou art revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of thy love, amen. — Jan Karon

We must stop listening to voices from the past
and we must stop immediately.
Father Tim — Jan Karon

Mitford would simply like to be the pause that refreshes.' — Jan Karon

In his bachelor's heart of hearts, he loved pie with an intensity that alarmed him. Yet, when he was offered seconds, he usually refused. "Wouldn't you like another piece of this nice coconut pie, Father?" he might be asked. "No, I don't believe I'd care for anymore," he'd say. An outright lie! — Jan Karon

Love God, be strong, be safe, be happy. — Jan Karon

He liked being in a place where everything from forgetfulness to homicide might be blamed on the heat. — Jan Karon

Every saint has a past, the sixteenth-century poet had said, and every sinner has a future. — Jan Karon

In World War One, they called it shell shock. Second time around, they called it battle fatigue. After 'Nam, it was post-traumatic stress disorder. — Jan Karon

You love him, I can see it."
"More than anything."
That alone should be enough, he thought, but of course it never is. Courage has to come in there somewhere, and perseverance and forbearance and patience and all the rest. A job of work, as Uncle Billy would say, but worth it and then some. — Jan Karon

Sometimes you have to gag on fancy before you can appreciate plain, th' way I see it. For too many years, I ate fancy, I dressed fancy, I talked fancy. A while back, I decided to start talkin' th' way I was raised t' talk, and for th' first time in forty years, I can understand what I'm sayin'. — Jan Karon

one who possessed Beauty without Vanity,"' he said aloud to Barnabas. '"Strength without Insolence, / Courage without Ferocity, / And all the virtues of Man without his Vices. — Jan Karon

You could tell a lot about people who would stop what they were doing to watch the Almighty go about His business (said as several stopped to watch a beautiful sunset, Chapter 14). — Jan Karon

The windows were open to morning air embroidered with birdsong. — Jan Karon

Writing is a way of processing our lives. And it can be a way of healing. — Jan Karon

I learned not to be so bitterly defeated when my fiction took a beating from editors. I learned in advertising to color in the lines and have my work done on time and to make it the very best it could be. — Jan Karon

That was his favorite thing about books - they took you off to other people's lives an' places, but you could still set in your own chair by th'oil heater, warm as a mouse in a churn. — Jan Karon

The rector wondered if the joy that people seemed so expert at containing somehow transferred to their dogs, who had nothing at all to hide. — Jan Karon

We took the parkway to Linville Falls, 221 to Marion, then I-40 here. The Alleluia Highway, we decided to call it. — Jan Karon

Give me faith, Lord, to know Your Presence as surely as I know the beating of my own heart. I've felt so far from You ... — Jan Karon

Was he willing to blend into the life of another human being for the rest of his days, and have hers blend into his? That, of course, was the Bible's bottom line on marriage: one flesh. Not separate entities, not two autonomous beings merely coming together at dinnertime or brushing past one another in the hallway, holding on to their singleness, guarding against invasion. One flesh! (p. 207). — Jan Karon

When I open many books, or most leading women's magazines, or see almost all TV shows, I don't find myself at all. I am completely anonymous. My value system is not there. — Jan Karon

The standing fields [ready to harvest]were the legions who hadn't filled their God-vacuum with the One who was born to fill it; the standing fields were those who waited for someone to reach out and speak the truth, and tell them how they might be saved. — Jan Karon

Charles Dickens said, It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens the temper - so cry away. — Jan Karon

Professor Morgan had called [Dooley] 'a lad of few words.' That wasn't true. There were words spilling around in him all the time. Too many words. His problem was organizing them. — Jan Karon

I worried too much about what others thought - I can tell you it's a tragic waste of time and energy and pokes God in the eye. — Jan Karon

All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art. JL Borges — Jan Karon