Dear Keller and Happy Birthday!
Your namesake, Tim Keller, died just a little more than a year ago. At 8 years old you probably don’t know much about him. But hopefully in the years to come you will get to know about him and read some of the books he wrote. As a short introduction, here are 12 of his quotes that will hopefully whet your appetite to read more about this man who was a pastor, church planter, theologian, apologist and disciple-maker to many of my generation. I did not know him and never met him but fun fact: we went to the same seminary – he graduated from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary outside of Boston about 8 years before I did. I would encourage you to ponder these thoughts of his and talk them over with others who are either exploring the faith or are already pursuing God.
- “All death can now do to Christians is to make their lives infinitely better.”
- “If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said. If he didn’t, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether you like his teaching, but whether he rose from the dead.”
- “Only if your god can outrage and challenge you will you know that you worship the real God and not a figment of your imagination. . . . If your god never disagrees with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized version of yourself.”
- “The gospel says you are simultaneously more sinful and flawed than you ever dared believe, yet more loved and accepted than you ever dared hope.”
- “Tolerance isn’t about not having beliefs. It’s about how your beliefs lead you to treat people who disagree with you.”
- “Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts… It is no longer sufficient to hold beliefs just because you inherited them.”
- “It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.”
- “Religious people find God useful. Growing Christians find God beautiful.”
- “The Bible says that our real problem is that every one of us is building our identity on something besides Jesus.”
- “In many areas of life, freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions.”
- “What marriage is for: It is a way for two spiritual friends to help each other on their journey to become the persons God designed them to be.”
- “Prayer is continuing a conversation that God has started through his Word and his grace, which eventually becomes a full encounter with him.”
Tim Keller lived courageously and died courageously. It would benefit your soul to get to know him. May your life also be marked by courage as you learn to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Never forget that you are very loved,
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