All human problems are ultimately symptoms, and our separation from God is the cause.
Interpretation
Human problems stem from a deeper spiritual separation from God.
Timothy Keller's quote suggests that the various challenges and difficulties we face in life are not mere isolated issues, but rather reflections of a fundamental separation from the divine. This separation causes a disconnect that manifests in our human experiences and relationships, implying that healing and resolution lie in reconnecting with God.
In practice
During a philosophical discussion on the nature of human suffering.
Falling in love in a Christian way is to say,'I am excited about your future and I want to be part of getting you there. I'm signing up for the journey with you. Would you sign up for the journey to my true self with me? It's going to be hard but I want to get there.
Only in Jesus Christ do we see how the untamable, infinite God can become a baby and a loving Savior. On the cross we see how both the love and the holiness of God can be fulfilled at once.
While your character flaws may have created mild problems for other people, they will create major problems for your spouse and your marriage.
To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.
God's Kingdom is "present in its beginnings, but still future in its fullness. This guards us from an under-realized eschatology (expecting no change now) and an over-realized eschatology (expecting all change now). In this stage, we embrace the reality that while we're not yet what we will be, we're also no longer what we used to be.
Faith in the gospel restructures our motivations, our self-understanding, our identity, and our view of the world. Behavioral compliance to rules without heart-change will be superficial and fleeting⦠We can only change permanently as we take the gospel more deeply into our understanding and into our hearts. We must feed on the gospel, as it were, digesting it and making it part of ourselves. That is how we grow.
Seeing ourselves as others see us would probably confirm our worst suspicions about them.
If you don't stick to your values when they're being tested, they're not values: they're hobbies.
Imaginary evils soon become real one by indulging our reflections on them.
What region of the earth is not full of our calamities?
Possibly it had occurred to him the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. [...] It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.
True humility-the basis of the Christian system-is the low but deep and firm foundation of all virtues.
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