Jamie Tworkowski Quotes

You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things.

We are all a people in need. We are not perfect. We are not machines. We make mistakes. We need grace. We need compassion. We need help at times. We need other people. And that’s okay.

You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people, and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things.

We were made to be lovers bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again

Love is a thousand things, but at the center is a choice. It is a choice to love people. Left to myself, i get quiet and bitter and critical. i get angry. i feel sorry for myself. It is a choice to love people. It is a choice to be kind. It is a choice to be patient, to be honest, to live with grace. i would like to start making better choices.

What an amazing thing to feel known and loved, to feel understood, to walk through life with another person.

We’re all in this together. It’s okay to be honest. It’s okay to ask for help. It’s okay to say you’re stuck, or that you’re haunted or that you can’t begin to let go. We can all relate to those things. Screw the stigma that says otherwise. Break the silence and break the cycle, for you are more than just your pain. You are not alone. And people need other people.

We need one another. There’s no reason to judge. People are more fragile than you could possibly imagine.

Don’t give up. Don’t give up no your story. Don’t give up on the people you love. Hope is real. Love is real. It’s all worth fighting for.

We don’t just live in books awake and dreams asleep. We are living stories, you and I, with dreams inside us undeniable, with love to give and people to walk beside.

songs are brave things bold enough to sing when all they know is darkness.

Be loved. Be known. Love people and know people. Be so brave as to raise a hand for help when you need it. Make friends and make sure they know they matter. Be loyal to them and fight for them. Remind them what’s true and invite them to do the same when you forget. If you do some losing or you walk with someone else in their defeat, live with dignity and grace. It is a middle finger to the darkness.

More than anything, my wish for you is this: That when your awful darkest days come, you will know you’re not alone. Pain will tell you to keep quiet, but that’s a lie. Life is fragile and we all break in different ways. I hope you know you can be honest. I hope you know that you can ask for help. Did you catch that? It is absolutely positively okay to ask for help. It simply means you’re human. Help is real and it is possible; people find it every day.

And God must be a pretty big fan of today, because you keep waking up to it. You have made known your request for a hundred different yesterdays, but the sun keeps rising on this things that has never been known.

The stars are always there but we miss them in the dirt and clouds. We miss them in the storms. Tell them to remember hope. We have hope.”


If you love somebody, tell them. If there is conflict, let it go and fight instead for peace. Break the numb false silence and break the distance too. Laugh and cry and apologize and start again. This life is short and fragile but friendship is among the greatest miracles.

If you feel too much, there’s still a place for you here. If you feel too much, don’t go. It this world is too painful, stop and rest. It’s okay to stop and rest. If you need a break, it’s okay to say you need a break. This life –it’s not a contest, not a race, not a performance, not a thing that you win. It’s okay to slow down. You are here for more than grades, more than a job, more than a promotion, more than keeping up, more than getting by.This life is not about status or opinion or appearance. You don’t have to fake it. You do not have to fake it. Other people feel this way too. If your heart is broken, it’s okay to say your heart is broken. If you feel stuck, it’s okay to say you feel stuck. If you can’t let go, it’s okay to say you can’t let go.You are not alone in these places. Other people feel how you feel. You are more than just your pain. You are more than wounds, more than drugs, more than death and silence.There is still some time to be surprised. There is still some time to ask for help. There is still some time to start again. There is still some time for love to find you. It’s not too late. You’re not alone. It’s okay –whatever you need and however long it takes- its okay. It’s okay. If you feel too much, there’s still a place for you here. If you feel too much, don’t go. There is still some time.

I just have to believe that we are all more loved than we’ll ever know. And we’re all in this together.

There is something true inside the song you can’t stop listening to.

I don’t know your story or your dreams or the things that steal your sleep, but I know they matter. I hope you story is rich with characters, rich with friends and conversation. I hope you know some people who carry you, and I hope you have the honor of carrying them. I hope that there’s beauty in your memories, and I hope it doesn’t haunt you. And if it does, then I hope there is someone who will walk you through the night and remind you of the promise of the sunrise, that beauty keeps coming, that there are futures worth waiting and fighting for, and that you were made to dream.

That guy with tears in his eyes and ghosts in his heart. He loved her, and you could see it.

Love is a choice as much as it is magic. Magic comes in moments, but choices stretch out over time. We make them new each morning.

We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue. Perhaps God would ask us to be that rescue, to be His body, to move for things that matter. He is not invisible when we come alive.

The truth is that we’re all living stories.

So if you feel as if you feel too much, well then you are not alone. May these words find you like a friend.

It is simply a confession that with all that I've seen in the last few years, all the events I've been invited to, and all the people whom I've met, I am less and less impressed by "impressive" things or people who are presented as having things figured out. I am impressed by people who are honest and kind. I am inspired by moments of vulnerability, moments of confession and compassion, moments where someone makes it clear that they are a person in need of other people and someone else makes it clear that the first person is not alone.

Perhaps you have to have a little bit of hope to believe that beauty can be found, to believe that life does come back, that something can surprise you. And maybe hope and wonder are somehow related. Maybe wonder feeds hope and hope feeds wonder. You see something beautiful and it reminds you that it’s possible to see something beautiful.

Don’t live only in your head. It’s lonely and it’s dangerous.

My thoughts gravitate to whatever’s missing, whatever’s lost or broken or painful. My heart worries and fears. There is plenty to be thankful for but those are not the scenes I stay stuck in.

Time has a way of putting things back where they belong. Love has a way of breaking the silence.

say the honest thing and say the hard thing

What if the things that ended –the things that broke and break your heart- what if it was the end of a chapter but the story keeps going? What it life comes back? What if love comes back? What if you would not be who you are and you would now know what you know it not for all those sleepless nights? I’m starting to believe those things, that the best is yet to be, that life comes back, that the dreams that live inside me are there for a reason, that life is not just a tragedy, not just a story about losing. It is also a story of surprises and grace and redemptions, of conversations and moments that feel like miracles.

i don't write much about faith because i feel like almost all the words have been abused. i've become embarrassed by most things called "Christian," but i still believe in a God who loves people.

If i have learned anything in the last couple of years, i have learned that it's a lot easier to talk about loving people than it is to actually love people.

We're saying the story doesn't end here, that the air in your lungs is there for a reason.

I’ll leave you with something I heard at lunch today: “Life is basically about these two questions: What will you celebrate? What will you grieve?

Acting may get us the applause we want, but taking a risk on being ourselves is the only path toward true intimacy. And true intimacy, the exchange of affection between two people who are not lying, is transforming.

Live with grace and dignity. It's a middle finger to the darkness

Don Miller says we're called to hold our hands against the wounds of a broken world, to stop the bleeding. i agree so greatly.

It’s better to be true than to be cool. Be yourself. Do what you love.

you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things.

Death will come for all of us but let us fight to live.

I've become embarrassed by most things called "Christian", but I still believe in a God who loves people.

maybe this is the way that i was made, to feel things, to say things.

is a choice to love people. It is a choice to be kind. It is a choice to be patient, to be honest, to live with grace.

Maybe relationships are like that. We have to choose these things. We have to say they’re real and possible and important.

You’re not alone in this. If yesterday was a hard day, you weren’t the only one who felt that way. Maybe there are things you need to say. Maybe there’s a letter you need to write, an e-mail to send. Maybe it’s going to take a long time and today you just need to call a friend and begin to be honest. Maybe things are really heavy or it’s just too painful. Maybe it’s time to find some help. Help I real. Hope is real. These things are possible. You’re not alone. The thing about the idea that you’re not alone is that it doesn’t do us much good if it’s just an idea. We have to do something with it. It’s like having no money and then someone hands you a check. You have to take it to the bank. You have to do something with it. Maybe hope is like that. Maybe community is like that. Maybe relationships are like that. We have to choose these things. We have to say they’re real and possible and important. We have to say some things out loud. We have to choose to believe that our story matters, along with the stories of the people we love.

We have to fight to not get lost in our own pain. We have to fight to remember the good, the thing we love around us, the things that we are thankful for. Don't buy the lie that your story is just a tragedy. And don't buy the lie that you are the only character in your story.

Our job now, those of us simply observing today, shocked by this awful news, our job is to love people. When it hurts. When it's awkward. When it's uncool and embarrassing. Our job is to stand together, to carry the burdens of one another, and to meet one another in our questions.

i don’t know what else to say. i just have to believe that we are all more loved than we’ll ever know. And we’re all in this together.

You are still alive, and today is the most interesting day. Today is the best place to live.

It hits me to wonder if this great feeling is what Christ knows when we surrender our broken hearts, when we trade life for death.

Fall suggests it’s possible to change, that things can still be new, alive, and bright again, alive and bright like Brooklyn.

The world is broken. Our bodies break eventually. Our minds and hearts can break as well. We lose things in this life. We lose relationships. We lose people. And so a lot of folks live with a lot of pain. Much is mystery but God asks us to love, not just when it’s easy and not just when a certain Scripture fits. What does it look like to love someone who lives in a place you’ve never been? When there are no words? Or what about allowing someone to love you when you feel completely alone, like no one can relate?

Love is a thousand things, but at the center is a choice. It is a choice to love people. Left to myself, i get quiet and bitter and critical. i get angry. i feel sorry for myself. It is a choice to love people. It is a choice to be kind. It is a choice to be patient, to be honest, to live with grace.

There are dreams inside of me and those are mine and my guess is that they’re there for a reason. But for all the days like now where the dreams are asked to be only dreams, I’m gonna keep getting out of bed. I’m gonna keep living my story. I’m gonna believe that there is reason and purpose, and power in my life. I’m gonna believe that I’m alive inside a story bigger than my pain, bigger than everything missing.

None of this ends tonight. This was a taste. This was a start. We keep going and we go together. We lean on people and we invite people to lean on us. We ask honest questions and we give honest answers. We ask for help, because we know that it’s okay to ask for help. Above all else, we choose to stay. We choose to fight the darkness and the sadness, to fight the questions and the lies and the myth of all that’s missing. There is much not missing. We choose to stay, because we are all stories still going. Because there is still some time for things to turn around, time to be surprised and time for change. We stay because no one else ca play your part. Life is worth living. We’ll see you tomorrow.

i believe in a God who places a great emphasis on love, a God who loves people and asks His followers to do the same.

A shouted 'You're going to Hell' is an awful introduction to a God who desires to love and know His children.

But i believe in a God who maybe doesn't scream at people the first time he meets them.

And are there broken things you were made to fight to fix?

With no fear, he charges his heart at the pointed world as a measure of sacrifice.

He told me once that he believed friendship might be life's greatest gift. What an amazing thing to feel known and loved, to feel understood, to walk through life with another person.

I have been a haunted house. I have had things die but stay and I didn’t know how to make them leave. And there were certainly times I didn’t want them to leave because they were beautiful. They were no longer real but they were beautiful. They were bridges to brighter days. I thought they were my dreams. Reality is the best place to live. Reality is where healing happens. In the honest light and by the voices of our friends. We all have our past. We all have our pain. We will all know ghosts from time to time. But if our life is like a building, then we should open our foors to let some people see inside. Into our darkest places, into those rooms that hold our fears and dreams, we will begin to go together. Friends with hope like candles, telling ghosts to go.

If you’re reading this, if there’s air in your lungs on this November day, then there is still hope for you. Your story is still going. And maybe some things are true for all of us. Perhaps we all relate to pain. Perhaps we all relate to fear and loss and questions. And perhaps we all deserve to be honest, all deserve whatever help we need. Our stories are all so many things: Heavy and light. Beautiful and difficult. Hopeful and uncertain. But our stories aren’t finished yet. There is still time, for things to heal and change and grow. There is still time to be surprised. We are still going, you and I. We are stories still going.

Perhaps you can relate to feeling in the middle, to having questions in the air. I don't know about you, but I hope to live a good story. To see things invisible and watch them come to life. The critics will probably always be there calling us fools or crooks, but we should just keep going. They can't see what we see and the are not the thing that drives us.

We are only asked to love, to offer hope to the many hopeless. We don’t get to choose all the endings, but we are asked to play the rescuers. We won’t solve all mysteries and our hearts will certainly break in such a vulnerable life, but it is the best way. We were made to be lovers bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again until we’re called home.


Guilt and regret, those are awful places. You know that. So don't live there. Do not despair. Do not be afraid. Grace is the interesting thing. Hope. And God must be a pretty big fan of today, because you keep waking up to it.

have learned so much in one week with one brave girl. She is alive now, in the patience and safety of rehab, covered in marks of madness but choosing to believe that God makes things new, that He meant hope and healing in the stars. She would ask you to remember.

We need one another. There’s no reason to judge. People are more fragile than you could possibly imagine. I

i am given no agenda but my own: to connect and be alive in this place, to listen and lean against the darkness, and to reach in if possible.

...spring makes sense only because of winter. You notice the warm sun on your face because it hasn't been there.

The thing about the idea that you’re not alone is that it doesn’t do us much good if it’s just an idea. We have to do something with it.

Don't give up. don't give up on your story. Don't give up on the people you love. Hope is real. Love is real. It's all worth fighting for.

All of that brings us to you. I wonder where this finds you. I wonder what you’ve known and what you feel, what you’ve found and lost and hoped for. Perhaps there’s still time, time for things to turn around, time for us to be surprised. Perhaps there’s still a lot of beauty to be found here, and good people too. People to love and people who will say we’re not invisible. Perhaps there’s everything we need. So if you feel as if you feel too much, well then you are not alone.

Maybe we begin to hel pour friends become unhaunted when we let them know we're not afraid of their pain. When we ask to really know them. When we ask to see inside. When we do our part to go beyond the distance and the smile, deeper, to "Who are you?" and "How are you?" and "Are you okay?

Maybe we begin to help our friends become unhaunted when we let them know we're not afraid of their pain. When we ask to really know them. When we ask to see inside. When we do our part to go beyond the distance and the smile, deeper, to "Who are you?" and "How are you?" and "Are you okay?

i’m trying to get back to someplace true, to someone i knew and liked a lot. i’m trying to make sense of my story, trying to make peace with it, perhaps so i can tell it, but more so i can smile.

We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue. Perhaps God would ask us to be that rescue, to be His body, to move for things that matter. He is not invisible when we come alive. i might be simple, but more and more, i believe God works in love, speaks in love, is revealed in our love.

Oscar Wilde said that art reveals more about the one who interprets the art than the artist herself. This may be true in the following memory of Jamie Tworkowski, a man who was particularly struck by a metal bird carrying the mantra “Travel lightly and deeply.” The bird is on a wall in our guest room. Few have paid those words any attention but Jamie; few live them out as he does. Jamie, you are a deep river. You feel every bend and rock deeply. And yet, you are still floating through, still searching and looking. Still traveling light and deeply on a pilgrimage toward a hope that you have never seen.

It’s okay to tell the elephants to leave. It might take a long time—it is certainly a process—but i think you’ll find that it’s a better way to live.
And don’t worry, you don’t have to go alone. You were never meant to.

We're called to hold our hands against the wounds of a broken world, to stop the bleeding. I agree so greatly. We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue, to be His body, to move for things that matter. He is not invisible when we come alive. I might be simple, but more and more, I believe God works in ,ve, is revealed in our love.

The only justice is love. Just let it go. You don't have to explain. This is not about being right. There is something true inside the song you can't stop listening to. You don't feel at home anywhere, but you feel at home when Aaron sings that song. Someone calling you a criminal does not make you a criminal, just as someone calling you a hero does not make you a hero. Nobody gets to name you. Find your identity in the one true place. If someone gives you something, and then takes it back - that's okay. If someone says something or sees something, and then they don't - that's okay. Do not be like some broken lawyer making the same argument over and over again, always reaching for rewind. Guilt and regret, those are awful places. You know that. So don't live there. Do not despair. Do not be afraid. Grace is the interesting thing. Hope. And God must be a pretty big fan of today, because you keep waking up to it. You have made known your request for a hundred different yesterdays, but the sun keeps rising on this thing that has never been known. Yesterday is dead and over. Wrapped in grace. You are still alive, and today is the most interesting day. Today is the best place to live. These things deserve your attention: your family, your friends, the people you will meet today, the strangers with their stories. They say 'We are all in this together.' It is absolutely true.

because we get older and we forget how to play.

It's better to be true than to be cool. Be yourself. Do what you love.

Celebration days... have a way of reminding us of what's missing.

The thing about the idea that you're not alone is that it doesn't do much good if it's just an idea. We have to do something with it. It's like having no money and then someone hands you a check. You have to take it to the bank. You have to do something with it. Maybe hope is like that. Maybe community is like that. Maybe relationships are like that. We have to choose these things. We have to say they're real and possible and important. We have to say some things out loud. We have to choose to believe that our story matters, along with the stories of the people we love.

It used to bother me a lot, used to steal my sleep, when people would say meant things or things that weren’t true. I didn’t understand it, and it hurt my feelings. But I’ve learned to focus on the work and the heart of the matter – the people in the balance.

THERE IS STILL SOME TIME If you feel too much, there’s still a place for you here. If you feel too much, don’t go. If this world is too painful, stop and rest. It’s okay to stop and rest. If you need a break, it’s okay to say you need a break. This life—it’s not a contest, not a race, not a performance, not a thing that you win. It’s okay to slow down. You are here for more than grades, more than a job, more than a promotion, more than keeping up, more than getting by. This life is not about status or opinion or appearance. You don’t have to fake it. You do not have to fake it. Other people feel this way too. If your heart is broken, it’s okay to say your heart is broken. If you feel stuck, it’s okay to say you feel stuck. If you can’t let go, it’s okay to say you can’t let go. You are not alone in these places. Other people feel how you feel. You are more than just your pain. You are more than wounds, more than drugs, more than death and silence. There is still some time to be surprised. There is still some time to ask for help. There is still some time to start again. There is still some time for love to find you. It’s not too late. You’re not alone. It’s okay—whatever you need and however long it takes—it’s okay. It’s okay. If you feel too much, there’s still a place for you here. If you feel too much, don’t go. There is still some time.

The world is broken. Our bodies break eventually. Our minds and hearts can break as well. We lose things in this life. We lose relationships. We lose people. And so a lot of folks live with a lot of pain. Much is mystery but God asks us to love, not just when it’s easy and not just when a certain Scripture fits. What does it look like to love someone who lives in a place you’ve never been? When there are no words? Or what about allowing someone to love you when you feel completely alone, like no one can relate? Beyond that, maybe it’s better not to fake it, not to offer something cheap. For the rest of us still here, with air in our lungs and tears in our eyes, perhaps we are meant to simply meet one another in the questions. Though the price will be the heartache of loss – for we can’t control when or how an ending comes – what a privilege that God allows us to connect with other people in this life, to be known and to be loved so we do not walk alone. Perhaps friendship – the deep kind, the best kind – perhaps it is a miracle.

We are only asked to love, to offer hope to the many hopeless. We don’t get to choose all the endings, but we are asked to play the rescuers. We won’t solve all mysteries and our hearts will certainly break in such a vulnerable life, but it is the best way. We were made to be lovers bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again until we’re called home.

I have been a haunted house. I have had things die but stay and I didn't know how to make them leave. And there were certainly times I didn't want them to leave because they were beautiful. They were no longer real but they were beautiful. They were bridges for brighter days. I thought they were my dreams. Reality is the best place to live. Reality is where healing happens. In the honest light and by the voices of our friends. We all have our past. We all have our pain. We all know ghosts from time to time. But if our life is a building, then we should open our doors to let some people see inside. Into our darkest places, into those rooms that hold our fears and dreams, we will begin to go together. Friends with hope like candles, telling ghosts to go.

Life is the beauty of your memories and the pain you feel when you remember.

We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue. Perhaps God would ask us to be that rescue, to be His body, to move for things that matter. He is not invisible when we come alive. I might be simple, but more and more, I believe that God works in love, speaks in love, is revealed in our love. We are asked to love, to offer hope to the many hopeless. We don’t get to choose all the endings, but we are asked to play the rescuers. We won’t solve all mysteries and our hearts will certainly break in such a vulnerable life, but it is the best way. We were made to be lovers bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again until we’re called home.

Elephants show up where they don't belong and they try to stay forever and they ask us not to say a word.

we get older and we forget how to play. Pain and worry steal our smiles.

I feel sad more than i feel happy. i feel stuck more than i feel free. i feel defeated more than i feel accomplished. i feel i should have found love by now. i think about it every single day.

I've become embarrassed by most things called "Christian," but I still believe in a God who loves people.

You have my attention. I know you want a motorcycle or you will think you want one for a while. Well, I don't have one. But I have an unusual heart. And you can have it if you want it.

And God must be a pretty big fan of today, because you keep waking up to it. You have made known your request for a hundred different yesterdays, but the sun keeps rising on this thing that has never been known. Yesterday is dead and over. Wrapped in grace. Those days are grace. You are still alive, and today is the most interesting day. Today is the best place to live. These things deserve