Subjunctive Speech

  • I remember that people would tell me to turn to Christ, ask Jesus, pray to Jesus, and I wanted to say, Well that’s well and good, but could you please explain to me why? Has he done something? Who is this Jesus? A magic name, a talisman? Or is there something more?
  • I think you could say that what I encountered in Robert Walker’s teaching, which of course he attributes to his uncle Tom’s teaching, has turned my life inside out, upside down, and brought me to a place where I can look back over the second half of my adult life and say, Ah (telephone rings) at last, meaning and purpose and light and joy and structure, um, which I would never ever have been able to discover or create for myself.
  • Now he’s usually right, and so you could say, “good stuff, stick in there,”** but if you didn’t know that, you might read that book and think that he’s the mildest — of course he is mild, but — but he was, um, not one to do battle, um, and in any situation.