Vocation — Frederick Buechner

Vocation — Frederick Buechner

www.frederickbuechner.com/quote-of-the-day/2018/12/12/vocation

VOCATION COMES FROM the Latin vocare, "to call," and means the work a person is called to by God.
There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of society, say, or the superego, or self-interest.
By and large a good rule for finding out is this: The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need to do and (b) that the world needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you've presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing cigarette ads, the chances are you've missed requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you're bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a), but probably aren't helping your patients much either.
Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.

-Originally published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words

Unconditional love?

"Let me be clear, my love is unconditional,
but your presence in my life is not."
"I'll have no problem unconditionally loving the memory of you."
~ Mars

The Christmas 5-Gift Rule

With the 5-gift rule, each person gets just five gifts for Christmas:
Something you want,
Something you need,
Something to wear,
Something to read, and
Something to make.

~ from Facebook

quotes from Jan Karon - Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good: The New Mitford Novel

quotes from Jan Karon - Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good: The New Mitford Novel
Kindle edition, as of 11/25/2019

It’s what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it. Oscar Wilde

Bonhoeffer said: “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”

All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art. JL Borges

Charles Dickens said, It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens the temper—so cry away.

Victor Hugo. ‘“Sleep in peace, God is awake.”’

All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened [Ernest Hemingway]

what Julian of Norwich said as she suffered a devastating illness of her own: “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”

‘“All that I have seen,” Mr. Emerson said and I say with him, “teaches me to trust the Creator for all that I have not seen.”’

‘Deep in their roots,’ Roethke had said, ‘all flowers keep the light.’

‘Mazel tov!’ Abe would say. ‘May you live to finance the education of your grandchildren!’

"Loneliness is the leprosy of the modern world" Mother Teresa

“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
~ Mother Teresa, A Simple Path: Mother Teresa  (1995)

Mother Teresa saw loneliness as leprosy of the West
News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), The Rev. Kendall Palladino Published 1:00 am EDT, Saturday, April 17, 2004
quote:
Ever since I first heard about Mother Teresa, I admired her. For this reason, I decided to join a team working with her in Calcutta in 1994. I will never forget her words to me because they changed the course of my life and helped me understand some of the needs in our country.
After a day working together, Mother Teresa spoke with our team. I told Mother Teresa that I planned to enter medical school after seminary to work with people with leprosy overseas.
Mother Teresa surprised me when she said, "Why do you want to do that?"
She continued, "There is a poverty in your country that is just as severe as our poorest of the poor."
I wondered what she could mean by that, since I had seen poverty that would make even our poorest in the United States look wealthy.
Mother Teresa went on to say, "In the West there is a loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways, it is worse than our poor in Calcutta."
The implication of her statement was that I should look first for the difference that I could make right around me. She said that we make a difference one person at a time. . . .
https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Mother-Teresa-saw-loneliness-as-leprosy-of-the-250607.php

"It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start."
~ Mother Teresa

"When Christ said: I was hungry and you fed me, he didn't mean only the hunger for bread and for food; he also meant the hunger to be loved.
Jesus himself experienced this loneliness. He came amongst his own and his own received him not, and it hurt him then and it has kept on hurting him. The same hunger, the same loneliness, the same having no one to be accepted by and to be loved and wanted by.
Every human being in that case resembles Christ in his loneliness; and that is the hardest part, that's real hunger."
~Mother Teresa
Teresa (Mother), Roger (frère) (1986). “Meditations on the Way of the Cross”, Burns & Oates

"Loneliness is the leprosy of the modern world."
~ Mother Teresa

Shared Mottos

Shared Mottos
https://www.masteryconsulting.net/post/join-our-motto-share

“Treat others as you want to be treated.”
Several people responded that the eternally simple and effective Golden Rule will always be their primary motto.

“It’s all about perspective.”
We come to our opinions through our current perspective, and if our perspective shifts, our ideas and actions may shift too. Understanding another’s perspective helps me understand their actions. D.S.

“It’s not what happens to us; it’s who we are within what happens to us.”
Nobody is spared a share of ugliness, fear, and despair in their lives, but what defines those dark times is who we choose to be in those times. This is the part that defines us and is lasting. D.S.

“This is where we are, not who we are.”
from singer-songwriter Billy Bragg

“Measure from the bottom up, not the top-down.”
This motto reminds me to give myself credit for what I’ve done, not what I didn’t do. S.B.

“Leave the place better than you found it.”
I use it when camping but also for people too. This means fixing typos, sharing resources, spreading the wealth when I pass along stuff that someone gave me that others might use), smiling at strangers on my walk to work, saying ‘good morning’ to co-workers when I come into work, holding a door for others, and picking up trash. K.W.

Resolutely, Ridiculously, Radically, Remarkably, Resilient.
This has been my motto for the past four years and was well earned. Karin Rex (Geeky Girl)

Beauty, Order, Simplicity, Grace.
These values help me to set priorities and make choices. B. G.

"The inevitable corollary to self-righteousness is contempt for other people."

"The inevitable corollary to self-righteousness is contempt for other people."
~ author unknown, can't find source again

Self-righteousness (also called sanctimoniousness, sententiousness, and holier-than-thou attitudes) is a feeling or display of (usually smug) moral superiority derived from a sense that one's beliefs, actions, or affiliations are of greater virtue than those of the average person. Self-righteous individuals are often intolerant of the opinions and behaviors of others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-righteousness

quotes on how to stay married for a long time

quotes on how to stay married for a long time:

In her book "Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give," the writer Ada Calhoun recounts asking her mom, in a fit of frustration with her husband, how she had stayed married.
Her mother's response: "Don't get divorced."

The actor Jamie Lee Curtis expressed a similar sentiment when asked about her longtime marriage to actor-director Christopher Guest.
"It's a fascinating thing," Curtis told Today in 2015. "I could write a book on marriage called 'Don't Leave.'"
She later elaborated in an interview with Good Housekeeping. "There's a recovery phrase that says, 'Stay on the bus...the scenery will change,'" she said. "I think it can apply to almost anything where you feel unhappy in that moment. I'm not a wild romantic. I'm a realist. I respect him. And I just don't leave."

Gwyneth Paltrow shared something her late father had said of his and her mother's long union:
"How did you and Mom stay married for 33 years?" she asked him.
" 'Well,' he said, 'we never wanted to get divorced at the same time.' "

quotes from CNN "This may be the secret to Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's amazingly long marriage" by Peggy Drexler, October 19, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/19/opinions/jimmy-carter-rosalynn-carter-long-marriage-drexler/index.html  as of 10/20/2019

other quotes:

"The best way to get most husbands to do something is
to suggest that perhaps they're too old to do it."
~ Shirley MacLaine

"Always look out for Number One
and be careful not to step in Number Two."
~ Rodney Dangerfield

"Do it once.  Do it right.  And never do it again."
~ Unknown

"The secret to a happy marriage is the same as the secret for alligator wrestling.
You must never let go."

"If dependence upon God is the objective, weakness is an advantage."

"If dependence upon God is the objective, weakness is an advantage."
~ Rev. Alistair Begg, Truth for Life

Christians celebrating Halloween

Hillsong pastor Nathan Finochio addressing criticism that Christians who celebrate Halloween are participating in a pagan practice and glorifying the devil:
A follower asked Finochio “Halloween yes or no?” and he replied with a very detailed response.
“Pagan Feast of Winter Solstice? Oh that’s now JESUS BIRTHDAY.
Pagan Feast of Spring Planting? Oh that’s now EASTER WEEKEND.
Pagan Celtic Festival involving dressing up and warding off evil spirits? Oh now it’s ALL SAINTS DAY and we celebrate the VICTORIOUS CHURCH THAT HAS BEEN OVERCOME BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB!!! CANDY PLEASE!!!” he wrote.
The pastor added, “I’m not afraid of any devil or demon or incantation. They are terrified of me. Halloween is now MY HOLIDAY and I am claiming all candy for the glory of God and the celebration of the Saints.
What now? I’ll dress up however I like! My favorite characters, pop culture stuff, whatever. It’s my party and you’re invited. I’m alive today and a Saint tomorrow. Give me candy.”

www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/celebrity/hailey-baldwin-claps-back-at-fake-christian-halloween-comments/ar-AAJ2h0q

Native American Seven Generations Teaching

Indigenous Practices and Seven Generations Teaching

Seven Generations Teaching: What we do today impacts the next seven generations to come. Conversely, what happened in the past seven generations impacts us today.

The Seven Generations Teaching is a concept that is part of many North American Indigenous cultures, specifically the Anishnaabe. Many understand this teaching as what you do today affects the next seven generations. We can have a positive impact on the next seven generations or a negative impact depending upon our choices as individuals and as a collective. This teaching also reflects upon knowing your ancestors, the past seven generations. If you do not know where you have come from you will not know where you are going.

quoted from:
Western University
Scholarship@Western
Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)
8-18-2009
Beyond Recovery: Colonization, Health and Healing for Indigenous People in Canada
Lynn F. Lavallee
Jennifer M. Poole

Citation of this paper: Lavallee, Lynn F. and Poole, Jennifer M., "Beyond Recovery: Colonization, Health and Healing for Indigenous People in Canada" (2009).Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi). 254. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/aprci/254

https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1190&context=aprci


"Rich people plan for four generations.
Poor people plan for Saturday Night."
~ Gloria Steinem

Responding to Unjust Accusations

“Tammie Jo, you will never be held responsible for what they say to you. You will be held accountable for every word you say to others. Let God take care of them.”

~ Jerolene Bonnell, the mother of Captain Tammie Jo Bonnell Shults, Navy lieutenant commander pilot, Southwest Airlines pilot, Captain of Southwest Flight 1380, author of Nerves of Steel

We are called to live by faith — not fairness.
~ Habbakuk 2:4

Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me.
~ Psalm 35:1

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.
~ Exodus 14:14

Do not be afraid of them; the Lord your God himself will fight for you.
~ Deuteronomy 3:22

Time Will Tell

"You will never be alone my love,
my heart is your home.
Hand in hand,
today, tomorrow and forever."

These were the words chosen by Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in his Instagram post, announcing his engagement to Princess Beatrice on Thursday, September 26, 2019.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-49843830

What we speak . . .

“What we speak becomes the house we live in.”
~ Hafiz

For a New Beginning - John O'Donohue

For a New Beginning
John O'Donohue

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.


John O'Donohue was an Irish poet, author, priest, and
philosopher.

Trust

Cara Wall, The Dearly Beloved: A Novel, Simon & Schuster, 2019, Kindle pages 207-8

quote:
They went to service at her church, and James was spellbound by her father’s presence. He was not only in the pulpit but was, somehow, also of it—an alloy of man and minister, fearsome and approachable, exacting but kind. James felt the tension of the current, upheaving times in the church, but also the long rudder Nan’s father had put in the water, his strong hand on the wheel. He wondered how he would ever attain that wherewithal, that command.
When he asked Nan’s father about it later, in the same office in which they had sat once before, her father said, “In my opinion, the most important job a minister has is to become a man who can lead his congregation through difficult times.”

“This,” her father continued, “requires you to become someone they can trust.”
James flinched; it was a quick and sudden cut. He saw, instantly, that he was not that man for his congregation.
“Nan tells me you are the one causing trouble at your church.”
James nodded.
Nan’s father shook his head and sighed. “That’s one option—standing for what you want to stand for. If you stick with it, you’ll earn people’s respect. But if you want to earn people’s trust, you can’t chastise those who disagree with you. You have to include everyone—no matter how misguided they seem to you. You have to give them time to say their piece, look them in the eye, and give them credit for it.”
James said, “That is the very last thing I want to do.”
“Then you’re an activist, James, and you should quit the ministry.”
James flinched again. He had seen, in this trip, what Nan had lost in marrying him. In marrying her, he had lost the freedom of choosing any other profession. And he did not regret it. “That’s the other very last thing I want to do.”
“A divided congregation will always turn on itself, James, and then what use will they be to the outside world?”
It was exactly what Nan had been trying to tell him. As he watched her brush her hair before bed that night, leaning against the edge of the dresser, he said, “Your father is a wise man.”
Nan turned to him and smiled. “I know.”
“I haven’t been so wise.”

I’m So Excited for 40th Grade

New York Times - Op-Ed Headline
Sept. 7, 2019

I’m So Excited for 40th Grade
by Mary Laura Philpott
When we become adults, we lose the prompt to reboot our lives every fall. But we don’t have to.

10 Powerful Quotes That Will Inspire You To Take Action

10 Powerful Quotes That Will Inspire You To Take Action
Zdravko Cvijetic
Jun 27, 2016

1. “Every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. Human beings, on the other hand, have been given the dignity of choice. You can choose to be all or you can choose to be less. Why not stretch up to the full measure of the challenge and see what all you can do?”
- Jim Rohn

2. “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”
- Cecil Beaton

3. “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
- Muhammed Ali

4. “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.”
- Jordan Belfort

5. “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.”
- Eric Thomas

6. “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
- Samuel Beckett

7. “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
- Steve Martin

8. “At the end of the day, let there be no excuses, no explanations, no regrets.”
- Steve Maraboli

9. “Someone once told me the definition of Hell: The last day you have on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become.”
- Anonymous

10. “Memento Mori (Remember That You Have To Die)”
- Latin Proverb

Leave your legacy.

(Blogger deleted Zdravko Cvijetic's other comments, for brevity)

https://medium.com/@zdravko/10-remarkable-quotes-that-will-inspire-you-to-take-action-7711003e527a

the story you keep telling yourself

 “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the [BS] story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.”
~ Jordan Belfort

old proverb about the definition of hell

Old proverb about the definition of hell:
On your last day on earth, the person you became
meets the person you could’ve become
and realizes the things you could’ve done.

Put yourself behind my eyes . . .

“Study me as much as you like,
you will not know me,
for I differ in a hundred ways
from what you see me to be.

Put yourself behind my eyes
and see me as I see myself,
for I have chosen to dwell
in a place you cannot see.”

~ Rumi,
a 13th-century Persian poet, faqih, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic

Pet Peeves

"Don't pet the peeves."
~ Max Lucado

What a Wonderful World

What a Wonderful World
Joey Ramone, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald

I see trees of green
Red roses, too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, "what a wonderful world"

I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, "what a wonderful world"

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying, "how do you do"
They're really saying "I love you"

I hear babies cry
Watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, "what a wonderful world"
And I think to myself, "what a wonderful world"

Songwriter: DOUG DIPRETA

Spring

“Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade.”
~ Charles Dickens, writer

God is mystery

“To say that God is mystery is to say that you can never nail him down. Even on Christ the nails proved ineffective.”

~ Frederick Buechner

"increases in endocannabinoids only when they were coached"

New York Times email
Well
August 22, 2019
quote:
Many people can attest to the fact that exercise helps them feel emotionally balanced.
This week Gretchen Reynolds writes about new research exploring that connection. Researchers used blood samples from women with depression who rode exercise bikes, sometimes coached and sometimes at their own pace.
They found something surprising:
Both kinds of exercise made them feel a bit better, but their blood showed increases in endocannabinoids only when they were coached.

Seventy-year-old Bob Long: “Preparation trumps youth”

New York Times Evening Briefing email, August 21, 2019
quote:
Seventy-year-old Bob Long of Boise, Idaho, won the Mongol Derby, a grueling 1,000-kilometer competition across the steppes of Mongolia. Mr. Long rode about 100 hours in seven and a half days, on 28 different horses, by his tally.
The amateur rider began training in January with previous winners of the race, riding four or five horses a day as far as each could go, and learning how to change horses efficiently. The key to Mr. Long’s success? “Preparation trumps youth,” he said.

Who Jesus Is

Who Jesus Is
by Bear Grylls, from his new devotional, Soul Fuel

When I was growing up, Madonna once said, “Jesus Christ was like a movie star, my favorite idol of all.”(1)

Napoleon Bonaparte went further: “I know men, and I tell you Jesus Christ was not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and other religions the distance of infinity.”(2)

And then there was novelist H. G. Wells: “I am an historian, I am not a believer. But, this penniless preacher from Galilee is irresistibly the centre of history.”(3)

There has never been a human quite like Jesus. He towers above us all in goodness and courage, in impact and influence. The greatest artists, leaders, and thinkers, all put together, are dwarfed by Him.
Yet Jesus did not come to impress us. He said He had come to save us, in total humility, as God come down among us. If He is who He says He is, and the Gospel is real, then this is very good news. He simply wants us to learn to reach out and trust Him to help and calm us, to forgive and restore us. If we are to live fully and empowered, then this has to be the first step.
So wherever you are with God — whether you are searching, are wanting more, or have turned your back and are walking away — this verse is truth:
The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. — Luke 19:10

(1) Scott Cohen, “Madonna: The 1985 ‘Like a Virgin’ Cover Story,” Spin, May 1985.
(2) Clayton Kraby, “Napoleon Bonaparte’s View of Jesus,” Reasonable Theology, https://reasonabletheology.org/napoleon-bonapartes-view-of-jesus/.
(3) Thomas A. Harris, I’m OK—You’re OK (New York: Quill, 2004).

Thich Nhat Hanh quotes

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce.
Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person.
But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce.
Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience.
No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.
Thich Nhat Hanh

When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Bring Small Children to Church

To Those Who Bring Small Children to Church:
There you are at church. Your baby or toddler is restless. Perhaps even a little boisterous. You try to silence them, and nothing. You try to pacify them with food or toys, and nothing. Eventually, you resort to the last thing you wanted to do: you pick them up, and before a watching audience, you make the march out of the church. All the while you’re a little embarrassed, maybe a little frustrated too.
You might even think to yourself, “There’s no point in coming to church. I get nothing out of it because I have to constantly care for my kid.”
I want you - mothers and/or fathers - to know just how encouraging you are to so many.
The elderly woman who often feels alone beams with a smile at the sight of you wrestling with your little one. She’s been there before. She knows how hard it can be, but she smiles because to hear that brings back precious memories. Seeing young parents and their small children brighten her day; she may have just received bad news about her health but seeing the vitality of young ones removes - if but for a moment - her fears.
The older man who always seems to be grouchy notices you too. He’s always talking about how children in this day have no respect or sense of goodness. But he sees you - a young family - in church every week. Like clockwork, he can depend on the sight of you and your young family. You give him hope that maybe the Church isn’t doomed after all, because there are still young parents who love God enough to bring their restless children to church.
Bring your children to church! If we don’t hear crying, the church is dying. As hard as it might be for you as a parent who’s half-asleep, keep on doing what you’re doing. You are an encouragement, and you’re starting off your children’s lives as you should.
~ Author unknown

Weekly Housekeeping Schedule

"So how did the Karkuts manage to keep this house looking like new for 57 years? Industrious parents who were willing to put in the time and effort, Mills says."
quotes:
Mom had everything planned:
Monday she would do the laundry and the ironing.
Tuesday was for running errands.
Wednesday she would change the sheets and clean the bedrooms.
Thursday she would clean the kitchen and the common rooms.
Friday was the bathrooms.

daughter Christina Mills explaining her mother Ann's housekeeping skills
https://www.phillymag.com/property/2019/07/25/house-for-sale-abington-midcentury-split-level/
Mr. and Mrs. E. Walter Karkut (Ann)

The 4 way test from Rotary International

The 4 way test from Rotary International:

• Is it the truth?
• Is it fair to all concerned?
• Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
• Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

no mistakes, just happy little accidents

“We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents.”
~ Bob Ross, one of America’s most beloved artists, on his TV show, “The Joy of Painting”

“Lord, you are my life.”

Mark Galli quoting Pope Francis:

Pope Francis, in a recent homily, is not being antagonistic toward journalists (at least I hope not), just making this point:

We may be curious about Jesus, or interested in church matters or religious news. We may open computer sites and the papers, and talk about holy things. … Jesus does not care about polls or past history. He is not looking for religion editors, much less “front page” Christians. He is looking for witnesses who say to him each day: “Lord, you are my life.”

Mark Galli
Editor-in-Chief, Christianity Today
​The Galli Report  (email)
Date: Fri, Jul 5, 2019 at 10:08 AM 

man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone

“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
~ Blaise Pascal, Pensées

Jesus claimed to fulfill His mission by dying for us

John Stott, one of the most influential Christians of our time, said Jesus claimed to fulfill His mission by dying for us:

"And the reason for this emphasis by the apostles is that they had seen it in the mind of Jesus himself.  It set him apart from the other religious leaders in history.  They died of natural causes in a good old age, having successfully completed their mission.  Muhammad was 62, Confucius 72, the Buddha 80 and Moses 120.  But Jesus died the horrible death of crucifixion in his early thirties, repudiated by his own people, apparently a complete failure, yet claiming to fulfill His mission by His death.  Indeed, during his last few days on earth, he was still looking forward to the accomplishment of his work.
"So the church has been right to choose the cross as its symbol for Christianity.  It could have chosen he crib in which the baby Jesus was laid, or the carpenter’s bench, or the boat from which he taught the people, or the towel with which he washed and wiped the disciple’s feet or the tomb from which he rose again, or the throne he occupies today, any one of these could have been an appropriate symbol of the Christian faith.  But the church passed them all by in favor of the cross, which stands for the necessity and centrality of his death." 
John Stott, Why I Am a Christian (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2003), 50-51.

John Calvin's definition of faith

John Calvin gave this definition of faith:

“We must not think that Christian faith is a pure and simple knowledge of God, or an understanding of the Scripture, which flutters about in the brain without touching the heart.  That is the opinion we normally hold of things which are validated for us by some reason which sounds probable.
Christian faith is, rather, a sure and solid assurance of the heart, by which we cling securely to the mercy of God which is promised to us through the gospel.”

John Calvin, Truth for All Time: A Brief Outline of the Christian Faith, Stuart Olyott, trans. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1998), 28.

Einstein's cluttered desk

One study by researchers at the University of Minnesota found a messy environment can make us more creative, whereas orderly surroundings make us more likely to confirm to traditional expectations.
As Albert Einstein – the owner of a notoriously messy desk – put it: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

Can decluttering your house really make you happier?
By Sarah Griffiths
15 May 2019
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190515-can-decluttering-your-house-really-spark-joy  as of 5/16/2019

"Life is a process of accepting the messes and learning to clean them up."

Quote from email:
New York Times Thursday Evening Briefing
Date: Thu, May 9, 2019, 6:32 PM

"Life is a process of accepting the messes and learning to clean them up."
That's according to Kelley Schlise, a plumber's daughter who will attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the fall.
Hers is one of five college application essays about work, class and money selected by our money columnist Ron Leiber after his sixth annual callout to high school seniors.

the most valuable result of all education

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly."
Thomas H. Huxley
English biologist (1825 - 1895)

Every time you make a choice . . .

"Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow- creatures, and with itself… Each of us at each moment is progressing to one state or the other."
~ C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The reality is that you will grieve forever. . .

"The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not 'get over' the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it.
You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered.
You will be whole again but you will never be the same.
Nor should you be the same nor would you want to."

~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler
www.whatsyourgrief.com

The Work of Christmas

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
    to find the lost,
    to heal the broken,
    to feed the hungry,
    to release the prisoner,
    to rebuild the nations,
    to bring peace among the people,
    to make music in the heart.

By American poet Howard Thurman from his “The Work of Christmas”

"when you fear God you fear nothing else"

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.
“Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord”;…

from The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 537 L

“Now it is today, and we can do so many stuff!”

“Now it is today, and we can do so many stuff!”
~ Daphne, upon awakening one morning
(Jenny's beloved six year-old granddaughter)