THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES

'A couple celebrating their wedding anniversary actually offer a stronger picture of God's love than a couple getting married. The essence of faithfulness is that it holds steady in the face of alternatives. Faithfulness is nurtured, tested and, in the end, strengthened by temptations. The wife and husband who remain faithful to each other - for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health - not only bear testimony to the kind of love God has for us, but they put it on display.' 

Glynn Harrison, A Better Story, p.152. 

GRASPING GOD'S LOVE

'If we want to understand God's love for us, we are invited to look into the most intimate and private corners of our felt sexuality and cross-refer.' 

Glynn Harrison, A Better Story, p.146. 

WHY WE ARE RELATIONAL CREATURES

'The desire for relationships, for intimacy and affection, is fundamental to the purpose and meaning of our lives as creatures made in the image of God. We love like this because the One is whose image we are made loves like this. We are longing creatures because we long for him.' 

Glynn Harrison, A Better Story, p.139. 

THE POINT OF SEXUAL DESIRE

'...sexual desire is our inbuilt homing instinct for the Divine, a kind of navigation aid showing us the way home. You could think of it as a form of body language: our bodies talk to us about a greater reality of fulfillment and eternal blessing, and urge us to go there.' 

Glynn Harrison, A Better Story, p.137. 

PART IDENTITIES VS. TRUE IDENTITY

'...Christians repudiate the entire infrastructure of self-construction as too emaciated and deficient to bear the weight of being human. Characteristics such as gender, race, nationality and sexuality are important, but we reject the modern practice of elevating these part identities into whole identities. Nothing less than the whole glory of the restored image of God in humankind will do. That is our identity. That is who we are.' 

Glynn Harrison, A Better Story, p.130. 

INSATIABLE IDOLS

'...idols always ask for more and more, but give less and less, until in the end they have everything and you have nothing...' 

Glynn Harrison, A Better Story, p.12. 

WE NEED A SETTLED SENSE OF SELF

'The ability to act effectively and confidently, to give love and receive it...requires a sense of self-worth and significance. But if the self is constantly in flux, a shifting sand of doubt and reinvention, how can such a delicate thing sustain a sense of its own worth and value?'  

Glynn Harrison, A Better Story, p.118. 

PLAUSIBILITY STRUCTURES

'Because of the strength of the plausibility structures supporting the majority views in a society, if you have ideas different from everybody else, it is generally a good plan to be part of a support network...Kindred spirits are crucial to keeping minority ideas alive. And so cognitive minority groups, if they want to survive as a minority, must start to act like a minority. They need to make active efforts to nourish their beliefs and patterns of life in ways that make them plausible to their members. They need intellectual leaders, attractive role models and the opportunity for members to rehearse and consolidate their ideas in the conversational fabric of their group, juts like the majority outside.' 

Glynn Harrison, A Better Story, p.72.  

EVERY HUMAN HEART

'...the heart is the wanting, loving, seeking epicentre of the person...'
Glynn Harrison, A Better Story, p.57. 

CULTURAL CHANGE

'Many of the key players in the sexual revolution understood the need...for cultural embodiment. They showed they were willing to swim against the flow. They braved the stigma of difference, marched the streets, formed pressure groups and conjured up the determination to show the world what love could like. And if there's to be a Christian sexual revolution capable of turning the the tide, it will need to do the same.'  

Glynn Harrison, A Better Story: God, Sex & Human Flourishing, p.48.

SELF-ESTEEM

'...in the early 1950s only 12% of teens aged fourteen to sixteen agreed with the statement, "I am an important person", but by the late 1980s 80% claimed to feel important in this way.' 

Glynn Harrison, The Big Ego Trip, p.93. 

SELFISHNESS

'In 2006 the respected UK Henley Centre for Forecasting disclosed findings from a tracking poll that had been posing the same set of questions for over twenty years. Each year the pollsters had asked, "Do you think the quality of life in Britain is best improved by (a) looking after the community's interests instead or our own or (b) looking after ourselves, which ultimately raises standards for all?

Before the year 2000 the overwhelming majority had chosen (a). Most people thought that the best way to improve the quality of life for everybody was to put other people's interests ahead of their own. But as a new millennium dawned, the gap began to close. And just six years later a majority (53%) of those interviewed chose option (b). For the first time in the history of the poll more people believed in looking after "me" first.' 

Glynn Harrison, The Big Ego Trip: Finding true significance in a culture of self-esteem, p.59.