Clear Winter Nights: A Journey into Truth, Doubt, and What Comes After

Clear Winter Nights: A Journey into Truth, Doubt, and What Comes After by Trevin Wax
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I bought this book because the author's dad and I were college friends. I had also read a couple of the authors articles and blogs. Knowing Trevin's dad I knew the book would be a good read. It turns out it is an excellent read. It is a novel with great spiritual truths. The story is about a young men who is struggling with his faith and moves in with his sick grandfather to help care for him. The grandfather is a retired pastor. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to grow in their faith. I trust you will enjoy the  "Clear Winter Nights" quotes below:

Just bring the right person to the right place at the right time for the right meeting, and everyone would be stronger.  ~Trevin Wax

You can’t hold on to a childlike faith if you don’t grab hold of a grownup every now and then.    ~Trevin Wax

I guess sometimes you have to stand still to really see.  ~Trevin Wax

I may be a little more limited than I would like, but I’m finding if you put your limitations to good use, they’re like the frame around a portrait. They enhance everything around you.   ~Trevin Wax

Your very existence is only because of grace.  To be is to be graced.  ~Trevin Wax

So Christianity is about giving up? No, it’s about giving in. Giving in to God. Handing your heart and life over to Him and casting yourself on His mercy alone.  ~Trevin Wax

Why manage in the dark when you can thrive in the light?  ~Trevin Wax

Chris didn’t remember much about Third Baptist as a kid. But in hearing his mom and grandparents reminisce and tell stories, he was impressed by how well the people knew one another. Really knew one another. Struggles were out in the open. Sin was dealt with privately and publicly. These people loved one another, and their love was tough. There were grudges and catfights and all the kinds of things you expect wherever people live. But through all the stories, Chris could sense the genuine love these people had for one another.   ~Trevin Wax

Who you are in Christ matters more than what people think of you.   ~Trevin Wax

Don’t trust in your strength, because there is such a thing as pride. Don’t despair in your weakness, because there is such a thing as forgiveness.   ~Trevin Wax

The true rebellion is in the heart of the Christian who follows King Jesus by swimming upstream against the current of the world.  ~Trevin Wax

You may feel alive when you go with the flow, but any old dead thing can float downstream.  ~Trevin Wax

The world says, “Be true to yourself.” King Jesus says, “Be true to your future self.”  ~Trevin Wax

Augustine was awed by the truth that God reveals Himself to us.  Listen here: “And, when You are poured out on us, You are not thereby bought down; rather, we are uplifted.”  ~Trevin Wax

Listen to this [from Augustine] about his sinful past. “You were always by me, mercifully angry and flavoring all my unlawful pleasures with bitter discontent, in order that I might seek pleasures free from discontent. But where could I find such pleasure except in You, O Lord – except in You, who teaches us by sorrow, who wounds us to heal us, and kills us, that we might not die apart from You.”  ~Trevin Wax

The greater your acknowledgment of your sinfulness, the greater your appreciation of God’s grace.   ~Trevin Wax

Gil put his hand on top of Chris’s, closed his eyes, and quoted Augustine from memory. “Lord, You called and cried out loud and shattered our deafness. You were radiant and resplendent. You put to flight our blindness. You were fragrant, and we drew in our breath and now pant after You. We tasted You, and we feel nothing but hunger and thirst for You. You touched us, and we are set on fire to attain the peace which is Yours. Amen.”  ~Trevin Wax

We don’t believe the gospel because it’s helpful. Or because it’s prettier. Or because it’s our upbringing. We believe the gospel because it’s true. Not just a preference but true. Truth about the way the world works.  ~Trevin Wax

Proselytism is about getting someone to change from one religion to another. Evangelism is proclaiming the evangel – the gospel. It’s an announcement.  ~Trevin Wax

Whoever says we should just keep our faith to ourselves and not evangelize – they’re really saying we ought to follow their instructions and not King Jesus. That is the height of arrogance, in my mind. Trying to be over Him.  ~Trevin Wax


People rarely fail to evangelize because of their intellectual questions. Failure to evangelize is almost always a worship problem. It’s not that we don’t know what we ought to be doing. We do. We’re just not doing it. That’s a sign that we’re not overflowing with worship. Whenever you are completely taken with something or someone, you can’t help but talk about it. Love can’t stop talking about the beloved. Fix the worship problem, and evangelism starts coming naturally.  ~Trevin Wax

The old, old gospel is the newest thing in the world; in its very essence it is for ever good news.    ~Charles Spurgeon

No one ever woke up and decided, “I want to have a bad temper.”  Or “I want to be addicted to pornography.” You don’t always choose your temptation, but you do choose your behavior.   ~Trevin Wax

We are not defined by our temptations. We are defined by our redemption.  ~Trevin Wax

Every conversion is a miracle, a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.   ~Trevin Wax

You know, Jeremiah 31. “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Isn’t that a glorious promise? That God won’t ever bring up our sin again? Takes a lifetime of determination to get that truth planted in your heart. We commit to memory. God commits to forgetfulness. ~Trevin Wax

I’ve fought my entire life to find my worth and value in what Christ has done for me, not in what I do for Christ.  ~Trevin Wax

He hoped Chris would put all his troubles in eternal perspective, placing his questions and doubts on the scales of eternity in order to see how one’s vision for the future affects one’s actions in the present.  ~Trevin Wax

Come, for creation groans,
Impatient of Thy stay,
Worn out with these long years of ill,
These ages of delay.


Come, for love waxes cold;
Its steps are faint and slow:
Faith now is lost in unbelief,
Hope’s lamp burns dim and low.

Come, and make all things new;
Build up this ruined earth,
Restore our faded Paradise,
Creation’s second birth.  ~Horatius Bonar



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