You are Unique

"Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else."

~ Margaret Mead

Being Used to Do Good

from a Tolstoy novel:

it is necessary "to be used to do good to people"

The 7 Sayings of a Gracist

• "I will lift you up."
  Lifting up the humble among us.
  (Special honor)
• "I will cover you."
  Protecting the most vulnerable among us from embarrassment.
  (Special modesty)
• "I will share with you."
  Refusing to accept special treatment if it is at the detriment of others who need it.
  (No special treatment)
• "I will honor you."
  God, as a gracist, has given greater honor to the humble.
  (Greater honor)
• "I will stand with you."
  When the majority helps the minority, and the stronger help the weaker, it keeps us from division within the body.
  (No division)
• "I will consider you."
  Having a heart as big for our neighbors as we do for ourselves.
  (Equal concern)
• "I will celebrate with you."
  When the humble, or less honorable, are helped, we are to rejoice with them.
  (Rejoices with it)

From Gracism: The Art of Inclusion by David A. Anderson
(IVP Books, 2007)

to protect the poor and save the oppressed

Rabbi Hayyim of Brisk was once asked, "What is the function of a rabbi?"

R. Hayyim replied: "To redress the grievances of those who are abandoned and alone, to protect the dignity of the poor, and to save the oppressed from the hands of his oppressor."

Be the change you wish to see in the world

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

~ Mahatma Gandhi

At Tara in this fateful hour

Christo-Celtic Prayer Against the Powers of Darkness
attributed to St. Patrick

At Tara in this fateful hour
I place all Heaven with its power
and the sun with its brightness
and the snow with its whiteness
and the fire with all the strength it hath
and the lightning with its rapid wrath
and the winds with their swiftness along their path
and the sea with its deepness
and the rocks with their steepness
and the earth with its starkness--
all these I place
by God's almighty help and grace
between myself and the powers of darkness.
Amen.

~ quoted by Madeleine L'Engle, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, p. 288-9

Ignorance is the Mother of Fear

Latin wisdom on the wall of Whitman College, Princeton University:

"Ignorance is the Mother of Fear"
"Ignorantia mater metus est"

A Mother's Hand to Care for Me

In her diary, Vietnamese surgeon Dang Thuy Tram, age 27, recorded thoughts on the war, her patients, relationship and friendship woes, criticism of the Communist Party and eulogies for her captured and deceased friends. In her last entry on June 20, 1970, she wrote:

"No, I am not a child: I am grown up and already strong in the face of hardships, but at this minute why do I want so much a mother's hand to care for me, or really the hand of a close friend, or just that of a person I know who is all right? Please come to me and hold my hand when I am so lonely. Love me and give me strength to travel all the hard sections of the road ahead . . ."

www.texastech.edu/tramdiaries/
http://www.depts.ttu.edu/communications/news/stories/05-10-tram-diaries.php

God is Sending You

"You go nowhere by accident.
Wherever you go, God is sending you.
Wherever you are - God has put you there.
God has a purpose in you being there.
Christ who is in you has something He wants to do through you where you are.
Believe this and go in God's strength and love and power."

~ Richard Halverson,
former Chaplain of the U.S. Senate

Ride Out to Meet Them

from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

As he surveys the carnage of his realm, King Theoden mourns: "So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?"
And Aragorn replies, "Ride out to meet them."

~ J.R.R. Tolkien

Spring Wedding

I took your news outdoors, and strolled a while
In silence on my square of garden-ground
Where I could dim the roar of arguments,
Ignore the scandal-flywheel whirring round,

And hear instead the green fuse in the flower
Ignite, the breeze stretch out a shadow-hand
To ruffle blossom on its sticking points,
The blackbirds sing, and singing make their stand.

I took your news outdoors, and found the Spring
Had honoured all its promises to start
Disclosing how the principles of earth
Can make a common purpose with the heart.

The heart which slips and sidles like a stream
Weighed down by winter-wreckage near its source -
But given time, and come the clearing rain,
Breaks loose to revel in its proper course.

~ Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate, Great Britain

on the occasion of the wedding of
Camilla Parker Bowles to Prince Charles

The Passion of Music

"Music is the ultimate in safe sex. You have all of the passion and none of the guilt."

~ Susan Werner in concert, 1/21/99

Nourish Your Dreams

"Don't let weeds grow around your dreams."

~ author unknown, from Mom

Yogi Berra - About His Wife

"We have a good time together, even when we're not together."

~ Yogi Berra, former Major League Baseball player and coach

Getting There

"You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going because you might not get there."

~ Yogi Berra, former Major League Baseball player and coach

Beforehand

"I owe all my success in life to having always been a quarter of an hour beforehand."

~ Horatio Nelson

Popular Mandarin Saying

"We say that you should take a big problem and turn it into a small problem,
and then take that small problem and make it into no problem at all."

Four Aspects of a Successful Novel

Riches
Rascals
Rape
Real Estate

Easygoing American Christianity

"More than 60 years ago, H. Richard Neibuhr summarized the creed of an easygoing American Christianity that has in our time triumphantly come to pass:

'A God without wrath
brought men without sin
into a kingdom without judgment
through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.'"

~ author unknown

The Church Is No Place for Joy

In church the other Sunday I was intent on a small child who was turning around smiling at everyone. He wasn't gurgling, spitting, humming, kicking, tearing the hymnals, or rummaging through his mother's handbag. He was just smiling.

Finally, his mother jerked him about and in a stage whisper that could be heard in a little theater off Broadway said, "Stop grinning! You're in a church!" With that, she gave him a belt on his hind side and as the tears rolled down his cheeks added, "that's better," and returned to her prayers.

I wanted to grab this child with the tear-stained face close to me and tell him about my God. The happy God. The smiling God, the God who had to have a sense of humor to have created the likes of us.

~ Erma Bombeck

If Jesus had used a management consultant:

MEMO

TO: Jesus, Son of Joseph
Woodcrafters Carpenter Shop
Nazareth 25922

FROM: Jordan Management Consultants
Jerusalem 20544

Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests, and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant. The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully. As part of our service and for your guidance, we make some general comments, much as an auditor will include some general statements. This is given as a result of staff consultation and comes without any additional fee.

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no leadership qualities. The sons of Zebedee, James and John, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely yours,
Jordan Management Consultants

The Will of God

Remember...

The will of God will never take you
Where the grace of God cannot keep you,
Where the arms of God cannot support you,
Where the riches of God cannot supply your needs,
Where the power of God cannot endow you.

The will of God will never take you
Where the spirit of God cannot work through you,
Where the wisdom of God cannot teach you,
Where the army of God cannot protect you,
Where the hands of God cannot mold you.

The will of God will never take you
Where the love of God cannot enfold you,
Where the mercy of God cannot sustain you,
Where the peace of God cannot calm your fears,
Where the authority of God cannot overrule for you.

The will of God will never take you
Where the comfort of God cannot dry your tears,
Where the Word of God cannot feed you,
Where the miracles of God cannot be done for you,
Where the omnipresence of God cannot find you.

Everything happens for a purpose.
We may not see the wisdom of it all now
but trust and believe in the Lord that
everything is for the best.

~ Author Unknown

Thinking

"She seemed nervous ... you could tell by the expression on her face. Instead of just blocking everybody out and doing her thing, you could tell she was thinking about it."

I Wish I Could Help, But I Don't Want To

Joey : "Pheebs, you wanna help?"

Phoebe: "Oh, I wish I could, but I really don't want to."

Friends

Humor

There’s a story told about the young son of a Baptist minister who was in church one morning and saw for the first time baptism by immersion. He was greatly interested in it all, and the next morning proceeded to baptize (you might have guessed this) his three cats in the bathtub.

The youngest kitten bore it very well, and so did the younger cat, but the old family tomcat rebelled at the whole thing. He struggled with the boy, clawing and hissing and wriggling and finally got away.

With considerable effort again the boy caught the old tom and once more tried to proceed with the “ceremony”; but the old cat acted worse than ever, clawing, spitting and scratching the boy’s face. Finally, after barely getting the cat splattered with water, he dropped him on the floor in disgust and said, “Fine, be a Presbyterian if you want to!”

The Something I Can Do

I am only one,
but still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something I can do.

~ Edward Everett Hale

Count the Cost

A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.

~ Martin Luther