Wide Awake by Erwin McManus: Chapter 2

In case you don't remember, a few weeks ago I made a post about an online "book club" idea (see the post here).  The following post is basically everything that I thought was interesting in the second chapter.  You can see my notes from the Introduction and the first chapter here. I will continue to make posts for each chapter as I read through the book.  I would love to hear what those of you reading this book thought after reading each chapter so definitely leave comments! Even if you aren't reading through the book, feel free to read the quotes and comment on any that might strike up some thoughts or emotions in you!

Discover: The Explorer

• Even though it's harder to live without exploring, and you feel the life being sucked out of you by the mundane, you stop being curious simply because your life is manageable. So you give up your insatiable curiosity in exchange for comfort and security and predictability. (pg. 37)
• You have to start making yourself flexible and pliable again, because if you stop learning, you will stop growing and will never create a life beyond the one you have right now. (pg. 37)
• The longer we live, the less pliable our minds are to learning. (pg. 39)
• Unfortunately, we who build our lives on the Scriptures are at times most in danger when we conclude all we need to know is in one book so we can be ignorant of everything else. (pg. 39)
• A person of faith must never be afraid to explore. We above all others should be driven to question, to examine, to learn. Faith shouldn't make you less curious but insatiably curious. (pg.39)
• When you live in relationship to the God of all creation, learning is a given. You are now and forever on a journey involving mystery and discovery. This journey is as endless as God is infinite and eternal. (pg. 39)
• You have an unlimited learning capacity. (pg. 40)
• To live the life God created you to live, you must continue to explore. (pg. 42)
• As children, our drive to learn is simply an expression of being human; in our adulthood, learning is an expression of humility. And if you do not have the character to keep learning, you will limit your capacity to keep advancing. (pg. 42-43)
• Now I know some of us love spiritualizing things, as in, "Well, God will solve the problem." But God rarely solves the problem with people who just say, "If God wants it solved, he'll do it." Instead, he seems to solve the problem with people who don't give up. Have you ever noticed that? (pg. 46)
• God seems to free the oppressed, end injustice, feed the hungry, bring victory, and do every good work through the men and women who refuse to surrender to the problem. (pg. 46)
• So it seems like retirement happens right about the moment you die when it comes to God. There is never a point in your life where you lack value or significance. (pg. 47)
• I think a lot of us are where we are in our lives because this is just sort of where we got stuck. You didn't feel a God-inspired call to where you live; you just happened to be born there or transferred there. You are being manipulated by the circumstances of your life rather than being moved by a calling with purpose and mission. (pg. 47)
• [Ironically,] those who don't have the opportunity to live a life worth dreaming of need you to pursue great dreams for them. (pg. 48)
• Is it possible that to create the life of your dreams, you need to get up and leave what you know and relinquish the security of what you have in order to discover what you only see in your imagination? (pg. 48-49)
• [But] it is possible you'll never find greater contentment or joy or exhilaration until you're willing to give up what you know and what you have for what awaits and exists in the unknown. (pg. 49)
• Not everything you need to know is meant to be learned through experience. (pg. 50)
• Know what it's called when you think you have to experience everything before you can actually know better? It's called stupidity. (pg. 50)
• Some things you should learn through the wisdom of others who have failed, and some things you should learn by having confidence in God and building your life on his shared wisdom. (pg. 50-51)
• What we should learn from wisdom we insist on learning through the pain that comes from being unteachable (which is a nice way of saying we choose to be stupid). (pg. 51)
• Every act of greed, every act of violence, every act of corruption is preceded by an imagination that went there long before. The world we create in our heads is the world we will create through our actions. (pg. 53)
• ...when we dwell in dark places we eventually become consumed by the darkness. (pg. 53)
• And for us to grow and thrive we must be willing to fail. (pg. 53)
• Your curiosity is a fuel from God to keep you searching and asking until you find him, and then to keep you searching and asking so you can know him. (pg. 53)
• Eternity isn't the place where you get all the answers. Eternity is a place where you get all new questions, a place where you will always be learning. God is infinite. How long does it take to get to know everything about an infinite God? Oh, I'd say, about eternity. (pg. 55)