10 of My Favorite Quotes From The Wolf in Their Pockets

Today, I play favorites.

My newest book, The Wolf in Their Pockets has been out for about four months now, and it seems to be striking a chord with a lot of people. To my understanding it has already sold better than my first book on social media, Terms of Service, which had a one-year head-start.

At the same time, I’ve heard from plenty of regular newsletter subscribers who have the book on their to-read list, but haven’t read it yet. Perhaps you’re on the fence yourself and you aren’t sure if it’s a book you’d find helpful and interesting. I get it.

Today I just want to share 10 of my favorite quotes from the book in an attempt to introduce some of you to it. I don’t mean to pat myself on the back here, but just give an overview of some of the themes. Here are the quotes:

1) Social media likely shapes the people you love and disciple more than you do. What are you going to do about it? (Page 11)

2) Social media handicaps efforts toward intimacy because it discourages vulnerability and depth. If God is merciful we eventually realize that no accumulation of “connection” can ever occupy the gap that only intimacy can fill. (Page 21)

3) To be informed is responsible, but to constantly consume information about whatever fits our fancy is often just another form of entertainment. (Page 30)

4) It is easy to slip into the misguided idea that our online lives are not our real lives. But our online lives are our real lives. Who we are online is who we really are. (Page 44)

5) Scripture is clear: we are not meant to be alone. The Christian life is not meant to be a solo sport. We are called to walk the narrow path of faith together so that we may keep each other from being lured into the darkness by the siren call of sin, and so that we may pick one another up when we have tripped over the traps laid by the evil one, who will try to make us falter and fall if he cannot lure us away with the desires of our flesh. (Page 52)

6) The great paradox of Christian friendship is that our best friends wound us when we need wounding and bind up our wounds when they need binding. It is a grave misunderstanding to think that our best friends are the ones who make us most comfortable, ignore our shortcomings, and never spur us on to becoming more like Christ. Friends are not therapeutic drugs we use to feel better about ourselves. Friends are brothers and sisters in Christ who have permission to call us out when we aren’t imaging our Savior, and who pick us up and dust us off when we’ve fallen in our lifelong walk of faithfulness to Him. (Page 54)

7) Social media creates a sort of illusion that the world and everything that exists is a movie and we are the protagonists in the movie. (Page 100)

8) If you think quarrelsome church members are going to keep their quarrelsomeness on the internet, you are mistaken. It will overflow into your churches and ministries if it hasn’t already. Are you ready for it? (Page 119-120)

9) We can rest in the finished work of Jesus. We don’t have to constantly try to impress people. We don’t have to keep up appearances of righteousness and perfection. These are spiritual pressures that have plagued Christians since long before social media, but the social scrutiny that comes with feeling chained to the stages in our pockets is intense, and the pressure to perpetually perform is overwhelming. (Page 176)

10) Sometimes we will need to be strong for the people we lead. We will also need to be weak for them. It is when we have the courage to be weak that we can rely on the supernatural Holy Spirit to lead us in the supernatural work that God sent the Son to commission us to do. You may feel like social media is shaping the people you love more than you ever could. But that’s okay, because it isn’t up to you. It is up to God’s Spirit in you and in them. (Page 209)

If these quotes have maybe pushed you over the edge to purchase the book, you can do so here.