Finding Faithfulness
The Only Choice that Matters
“Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good or good people better; Jesus came to make dead people alive!” – Lon Solomon
Finding the Way
“What a lost person needs is a map of the territory, with his own position marked on it so he can see where he is in relation to everything else.”
— Margaret Atwood
The Gospel of Mathematics
“From nursery school onward we are taught how to succeed in the world of ungrace. The early bird gets the worm. No pain, No gain. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Demand your rights. You get what you pay for. I know these rules well because I live in them. I work for what I earn; I like to win; I insist on my right. I want people to get what they deserve – nothing more, nothing less.” Philip Yancey
Perfect Timing
“God is always on time. He’s never late and He is never early. His timing is perfect.” – Lon Solomon
Building an Empire
“It is not the beauty of a building you should look at; its the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time.” – David Allan Coe
Otherworldliness
To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.
– Stephen Hawking
Billions of Details and the Infinite God
“The years teach much the days never know.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Jesus and Ted Williams
“For my money, Ted Williams is the greatest hitter of all-time. I’d take him over Ruth, I’d take him over Cobb. I’d take him over Cobb because of the combination of power and average. I’d take him over Ruth because with Ruth, you can only speculate about what he would have done in the modern era. Ted Williams hit .388 at the age of 39 in 1957. He was what few of us ever become; he was exactly what he set out to be. He said he wanted to be able to walk down the street some day and have people say “There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived”. And if they don’t say that, it’s only because they don’t know what they’re talking about.” – Bob Costas
The Object of His Affection
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless–it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.” – C.S. Lewis
A New Normal
“God utters me like a word containing a partial thought of him. A word will never be able to comprehend the voice that utters it. But if I am true to the concept that God utters in me, if I am true to the thought of Him that I was meant to embody, I shall be full of his actuality and find him everywhere in myself, and find myself nowhere.” — Thomas Merton
Running on empty…
“We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life; we’ve added years to our lives, but not life to our years. We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. These days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one night stands, overweight bodies and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It’s a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the storeroom.” – Norris Peters
The ultimate understanding of the ubiquitous
Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore
The Vivacity of Hope
“The heart if it is this: to make the Lord and his immense love for you constitutive of your personal worth. Define yourself radically as
The Treadmill of the Contemporary…
“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our
The Big Three…
“American Culture fosters and sustains a functional Trinitarian god of consumerism, hedonism and nationalism. Made in this image and likeness of such a god, we
Life, Part II…
“The gospel message is being molded to suit an increasingly narcissistic culture. Conversion is proclaimed as the road to self-realization… Religion… as a way to
The Practical Pursuit of the Wrong Things
“The building fund, pew fund, and organ fund lose their importance when you encounter hungry people daily. Those who have put in a year or
bff’s, bestie’s and the one who is closer than a brother…
“Never hate your enemy; it will only impair your judgment.” – Mario Puzo There is an old motto which many have lived by for years
The Love of a Savior
“Experiencing God’s love in Jesus Christ means experiencing that one has been unreservedly accepted, approved, infinitely loved, that one can and should accept one’s self
Christ the Christian vs. Christ the Lord
“To continue to eye God primarily in terms of laws, obligations, and civil ordinances represents a retreat to a pre-Christian level of thought and rejection
Times of Hope
“Christians are a source of hope to the extent that others can find in them a source of strength and joy.” – Brennan Manning We
Transparency
“Without the purpose and work of Christ using me for his purpose, my contribution to this world would be an asphalt driveway in front of
He is worthy
“There is no substance under the things with which you are clothed. You are hollow and your structure of pleasure and ambitions has no foundation.
Let go… let God
“When you are faithful in silent meditation… you will slowly experience yourself in a deeper way. Because in this useless hour in which you do
This too shall pass…
“Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you, all things are passing. God alone remains.” – Therese of Lisieux With so many things in flux
Neither left, nor right – Deeper
“People have always misunderstood God’s mission. For it is always to call people out from a land of bondage into a land of freedom. To
Followers of the Asterisk…
“The truth shall set you free.” The words of Christ to those who believe in Him to understand what it is to be his disciple. These days the truth seems harder and harder to find.
Audience of One
“Today is the greatest day I’ve never known Can’t wait for tomorrow I might not have that long I’ll tear my heart out before I
the freedom of unity…
“Many Christians have gathered like ravens around the carcass of cheap grace and there have drunk the poison which has killed the following of Christ.”
Lunatic Justice
“The absolutely unpardonable thing was not (Jesus’) concern for the sick, the cripples, the lepers, the possessed… not even for his partisanship for the poor,
Serenity Now!!!
“The Devil never rejoices more than when he robs a servant of God of his peace of heart.” – Francis of Assisi Stillness is vital
Conquering kingdoms and losing ourselves…
“Some favorite expressions of small children: “It’s not my fault. . . They made me do it. . . I forgot.” Some favorite expressions of
Talk of Rapture in the Streets…
“For though we very truly hear that the kingdom of God will be filled with splendor, joy, happiness and glory, yet when these things are
Some days are better than others…
“The early American Indians had a specific last rite of passage before a boy would become a man. On the night of his 13th birthday,
Living outside the box
“If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?” – Chuck Palahniuk An infinite
In the path of brokenness
“To embrace one’s brokenness, whatever it looks like, whatever has caused it, carries within it the possibility that one might come to embrace one’s healing.”
Not as we expect…
“I grew up with six brothers. That’s how I learned to dance – waiting for the bathroom.” – Bob Hope Waiting. We’re all waiting for
Hope springs eternal in the puppy beast…
“All the great spiritual leaders in history were people of hope. Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi, and Dorothy Day all lived with a
Reflection and Illumination
“Previously, my main motive in life was to do a painting of myself, filled with bright colors and profound insights, so that all who looked
Worthy of so much more…
“Man, I gotta be honest with you, I’m not looking for that. I’m looking for something bigger. I’m looking for a dare to be great
The Joys of True Liberty
“The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for
Uncommon Decency
“The absolutely unpardonable thing was not (Jesus’) concern for the sick, the cripples, the lepers, the possessed… not even his partisanship for the poor, humble
A Monopoly on Evil, a Republic of Peace
“If the fact of my adhering to laws does not further the goal of my life, which is to know Christ Jesus and live his
The joy of our hearts
“I don’t believe that there has been the beginning of a discovery that has been more important than this: True prayer takes place in the
The Sunrise of His Provision
“I hope as much from the justice of God as from his mercy. It is because He is just that He is compassionate and full
His heart for our survival
“The illusion of control is truly pathetic, but it is also hilarious. Deciding what I need most out of life, carefully calibrating my next move,
Asleep in the light
“Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexplained tears, it is well to pay close attention. They are not only telling you something about
Provision in jars of clay
“May all of your expectations be frustrated. May all of your plans be thwarted. May all of your desires be withered into nothingness, that you
Beauty will save the world…
“I never asked God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder and He gave it to me.” – Rabbi Abraham
And then… and then… and then…
A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free,
The Subtle and the Soul
“When my thinking about God is correct, consistent and focused, I am, in some way, thinking correctly about everything else. When my thinking about God
The Wellspring
“Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words; wait and
Keeping up appearances
“The Pharisee within usurps my true self whenever I prefer appearances to reality, whenever I am afraid of God, whenever I surrender control of my
Lives Defined by Joy
“Joy can be real only if people look upon their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their
Fortunate sons (and daughters)
Fortunately for us, God has a way of taking our question marks and straightening them out into exclamation points.” – Philip De Courcy When waters
Enlarged in the waiting…
“Christians are a source of hope to the extent that others can find in them a source of strength and joy.” – Brennan Manning The
The calling to be free
“Quit keeping score altogether and surrender yourself with all your sinfulness to God who sees neither the score nor the score-keeper, but only his child
A tale of two Peters…
“Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself founded empires; but what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? – Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an
Security out of Risk
“Honesty before God requires the most fundamental risk of faith we can take; the risk that God is good, that God does love us unconditionally.
Salvation, coming like the dawn…
“Many people flock to places and persons who promise intensive experiences of togetherness, cathartic emotions of exhilaration and sweetness, and liberating sensations of rapture and
Embraced, not judged…
“One imponderable trait of the human psyche is its ability to make irrational judgments about worthwhile human investments along with its refusal to view life
The acceptance of others and ourselves…
“Nothing that we despise in the other man is entirely absent from ourselves. We must learn to regard people less in the light of what
The Comfort of Community
“The security center is such a lonely level of consciousness. When your consciousness is preoccupied with striving toward what you feel to be your security
Contrary to All Known Signs
“We have made the bitterness of the cross, the revelation of God in the cross of Jesus Christ, tolerable to ourselves by learning to understand
Conscious of Community
“Satan’s desire is to turn me in on myself to the extent that I become enslaved and become a destructive force in community. The thrust
What would the Master do?
“The great mark of a Christian is what no other characteristic can replace, namely the example of a life which can be explained only in
A Place of Prayer
“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” – Martin Luther King, Jr Amidst times of trials
The Scale of Importance
“We are satisfied by our decent little life. We are pleased with our good habits; we take them for virtues. We are pleased with our
A Little Gripp on Reality
“Many of us have been lying to ourselves for so long that our comforting illusions and rationalizations have assumed a patina of truth we clutch