Book Notes - Wide Awake

Wide Awake: The Future is Within You, Erwin McManus

The world needs you at your best. This planet is made better or worse by the people we choose to become. If you lived a diminished life, it's not only you who loses, but the world loses, and humanity loses.

...sometimes the limitations you are willing to accept establish the boundaries
of your existence.

If your dreams are supposed to be bigger than your life, then your life will always
be limited by the size of your dreams.

After all, a life well lived is the most exquisite work of art.

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.

Exploration is not a choice, really; it is an imperative - Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut

There are times when I face an obstacle, a challenge, a problem that seems so big it's overwhelming, and I tell myself, I only need one more solution than I have problems.

Sometimes we think that if we leave everything we know, it's going to get worse from there. 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.

[He has a section heading called "Liquid Metal"]

What we find in all these individuals through whom God has written biblical history
is that faith gives you the confidence to adapt to your circumstances while never
compromising your convictions.

Adaptability requires teachability. The ability to change comes from one core characteristic, and that is simply humility.

If you are a sincere follower of Christ, then you are mandated by God to be a voracious, intentional learner.

It is very likely that the life God has given you as a gift today is the very thing he will ask of you as a sacrifice tomorrow.

She [Mariah his daughter] is a kaleidoscope in a world of telescopes and microscopes.

We justify our loss of focus with the excuse that God is invisible. You can't see or hear him; it's easier to trust in the world you can see and feel. But Peter had God visible, physical, tangible, right in front of him, and even that didn't make the difference.

You thought twelve notes were limiting. Three colors, talk about having our hands tied in the creative process! Not for the artist. For them the boundaries are the parameters, not the limitations.

To live a life that takes your breath away, you have to be willing to get winded.

We are born with potential but we're not supposed to die with it. The more you develop your potential, the more potential you seem to have.

Do you believe obedience to God is in conflict with the enjoyment of life? You'll never live the life of your dreams until you believe that God is the source of all that is good.

When there's an out-of-control fire, these hot shots start strategically positioned fires because they understand the only way to stop a devestating fire is to consume it with a new fire.

[Nem 8:5-9,10 - why he says Amen and Amen]

I've seen how poverty can create a famine of the soul. Dreams become a luxury when your sleep is filled with the pangs of hunger. I have also seen how having can be the enemy of imagining. The more you have, the more you have to lose. The longer you have, the more you become depenedent on the available resources.

The highest act of human intelligence isn't memorizing facts but imagining a new future.

To imagine costs you nothing. Not to imagine could cost you everything.

God knew Adam longed for Eve when Adam himself couldn't even imagine her. Isn't it
possible that the life that your soul longs for is beyond even your imagination?
[Call to me and I will answer and tell you great and unsearchable things that
you do not know. - Jer 33:3]