208 Quotes by Jen Hatmaker

When we operate from the central concern of being seen a certain way, we can’t develop healthy relationships in the messy soil of reality – the only place they’ll grow. Presenting a perfect, fake life to others generates fear in our own hearts and intimidation in everyone else’s, and creates nice, fake relationships – with our friends, with our family members, even with our own children.

I sincerely believe we are created by a Creator to be creative. This is part of His image we bear, this bringing forth of beauty, life, newness... It looks like art, it looks like music, it looks like community, it looks like splendor. That thing in you that wants to make something beautiful? It is holy.

Adoption is an answer to a tragedy that has already happened, but may it never be the impetus for one that hasn’t.

It’s so weird to live in this world. What a bizarre tension to care deeply about the refugee crisis in Syria and also about Gilmore Girls. It is so disorienting to fret over aged-out foster kids while saving money for a beach vacation. Is it even okay to have fun when there is so much suffering in our communities and churches and world? What does it say about us when we love things like sports, food, travel, and fashion in a world plagued with hunger and human trafficking?

I suspect God is more glorified in a humble room of earnest worshipers than a massive production designed to sound “relevant” to the listeners but no longer relevant to God. When the worship of God turns into a “worship experience,” we have derailed as the body of Christ.

Instead of waiting for community, provide it, and you’ll end up with it anyway.

We judge people in areas where we’re vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we’re doing. If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people’s choices. If I feel good about my body, I don’t go around making fun of other people’s weight or appearance. We’re hard on each other because we’re using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived shaming deficiency.

We “love” people the way we “love” ourselves, and if we are not good enough, then no one is.

God measures our entire existence by only two things: how we love Him and how we love people. If you get this right, you can get a million other things wrong.