Top 18 Mike Yaconelli Quotes

I think that when you follow Christ, one of the things that happens when you start listening to His voice is that you really are alone.

I just want to be remembered as a person who loved God, who served others more than he served himself, who was trying to grow in maturity and stability.

Looking back over the years, I realize the Bible isn’t magic, but it is corrective; it isn’t an answer book, it is a living book; it isn’t a fix-it book, it is relationship book. When I confront God’s word, I am confronted; when I read God’s word, it reads me; when I seek God’s presence, He seeks me.

I think satire is most effective when you love the thing you’re satirizing rather than… have a vendetta against it.

Sin is more than turning our backs on God – it is turning our backs on life! Immorality is much more than adultery and dishonesty: it is living drab, colorless, dreary, stale, unimaginative lives.

Evangelicals always assume that humor and faith are contradictory. It’s OK to smile, to be nice, but not frivolous.

A calling is the place where your gifts, abilities, desires, and feelings of worth all meet. When you follow your calling, you feel at home, at peace – you feel as though you’re where you’re meant to be.

I long for a life that explodes with meaning and is filled with adventure, wonder, risk, and danger. I long for a faith that is gloriously treacherous. I want to be with Jesus, not knowing whether to cry or laugh.

I can remember the night I became a Christian. And man, this weight came off of me and all that kind of stuff. What I didn’t realize was, that was just the beginning – of a huge journey.

I came from a tradition where souls were a theological reality, not a faith reality. Souls were for saving, not for communing. Souls were for converting and, once they were converted, they were to be left alone. Souls were too mystical, too subjective, too ambiguous, too risky, too… well, you know – New Age-ish.

I’m ready for a Christianity that ‘ruins’ my life, that captures my heart and makes me uncomfortable. I want to be filled with an astonishment which is so captivating that I am considered wild and unpredictable and… well… dangerous. Yes, I want to be ‘dangerous’ to a dull and boring religion.

I want to be a good person. I don’t want to fail. I want to learn from my mistakes, rid myself of distractions, and run into the arms of Jesus. Most of the time, however, I feel like I am running away from Jesus into the arms of my own clutteredness.

There have been times where I’ve said, ‘Jesus, I don’t believe in you anymore, get out of here. I don’t know. I don’t even trust you.’ And it’s like, okay. And he’s still hanging on.

Pretending is the grease of non-relationships. Pretending is how you and I get through the day without ever having to know each other. When I walk in the room, you say to me, ‘How are you?’ Well, you don’t want to know. And, frankly, I don’t want to tell you. So I just say, ‘Fine,’ and you go, ‘Fine.’ And off we go.

If I were to die today, I would be nervous about what people would say at my funeral. I would be happy if they said things like, ‘He was a nice guy’ or, ‘He was occasionally decent’ or, ‘Mike wasn’t as bad as a lot of people.’

We’ve lost touch with our souls. We’ve been nourishing our minds, our relational skills, our theological knowledge, our psychological well-being, our physiological health… but we’ve abandoned our souls.

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a godly person. Yet when I look at the yesterdays of my life, what I see, mostly, is a broken, irregular path littered with mistakes and failure. I have had temporary successes and isolated moments of closeness to God, but I long for the continuing presence of Jesus.

Spirituality is not a formula; it is not a test. It is a relationship. Spirituality is not about competency; it is about intimacy. Spirituality is not about perfection; it is about connection. The way of the spiritual life begins where we are now in the mess of our lives.