After two thousand years of church history, why is our world's population less than one-third Christian? Why are the personalities of many pious Christians so opaque? Why did Friedrich Nietzsche reproach Christians for "not looking like they are saved"? Why do we so seldom hear in our day what the old lawyer said of John Vianney, "An extraordinary thing happened to me today: I saw Christ in a man"? Why don't our contagious joy, enthusiasm and gratitude infect others with a longing for Christ? Why are the fire and spirit of Peter and Paul so conspicuously absent from our pallid existence?

Perhaps because so few of us have undertaken the journey of faith across the chasm between knowledge and experience. We prefer to read the map rather than visit the place.

Brennan Manning from his book The Signature of Jesus