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)

11 Inspirational Quotes from George H.W. Bush

11 Inspirational Quotes from George H.W. Bush
Life lessons from the former President of the United States.
By Lauren Hubbard
Dec 1, 2018
www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a20053077/best-george-hw-bush-quotes/  as of 12/7/2018

From his mild-mannered facade, few would have guessed that George H.W. Bush led such an eventful life: he served as a WWII combat pilot for the Navy, director of the CIA, and, of course, the 41st President of the United States, presiding over such momentous historical events as the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the Cold War. Alongside Barbara, his beloved wife of 73 years, Bush dispensed words of wisdom long beyond his tenure in public service, inspiring many with his faith and hope for a better tomorrow.

Here, a few of Bush's best-loved quotes.

ON PROBLEM SOLVING:
"No problem of human making is too great to be overcome by human ingenuity, human energy, and the untiring hope of the human spirit."

ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
"International exchanges are not a great tide to sweep away all differences, but they will slowly wear away at the obstacles to peace as surely as water wears away a hard stone."

ON TEAMWORK
"In crucial things, unity. In important things, diversity. In all things, generosity."

ON THE FUTURE
"I do not mistrust the future; I do not fear what is ahead. For our problems are large, but our heart is larger."

ON LIFE
"Be bold in your caring, be bold in your dreaming and above all else, always do your best."

ON COOPERATION
"Don't confuse being 'soft' with seeing the other guy's point of view."

ON FREEDOM
"Freedom and the power to choose should not be the privilege of wealth. They are the birthright of every American."

ON DOING WHAT'S RIGHT
"No generation can escape history."

ON EDUCATION
"Think about every problem, every challenge, we face. The solution to each starts with education."

ON HIS LEGACY
"History will point out some of the things I did wrong and some of the things I did right."

ON AMERICA
"America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world."

www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a20053077/best-george-hw-bush-quotes/  as of 12/7/2018

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” —Theodore Roosevelt.

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
—Theodore Roosevelt

"Grief is the terrible reminder of the depths of our love. . ."

Musician Nick Cave has shared an emotional open letter about how he still feels the presence of his son, Arthur, who died in 2015 aged 15.
"If we love, we grieve. . . . Grief and love are forever intertwined. Grief is the terrible reminder of the depths of our love and, like love, grief is non-negotiable. There is a vastness to grief that overwhelms our minuscule selves."
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-46084553

experiencing something new, in order to be able to choose something different

e-News, Sisters of St. Joseph, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia
Edition No. 79 — October 15, 2018

20th Anniversary Gift of Hope Gala Honors Sister Rita Woehlcke SSJ
October 5, 2018
Sister Rita Woehlcke SSJ received the Humanitarian of the Year Award at the event.
The Center is nationally recognized for cutting edge practices in breaking the cycle of homelessness, substance abuse and poor ‘starts’ for children.
Rita began her relationship with the Center for Great Expectations in 1995 and was instrumental in creating the mission statement and designing a vision for comprehensive care. In each case, the model was based on experiencing something new, in order to be able to choose something different, and then having the internal and external resources and support to maintain that new life. She views her time at CGE as one the most significant in her ministerial life. . . .
Congratulations, Rita!

Temper, temper

"Temper, temper! Don't give it away. Nobody wants it."
~ David M's grandmother

Wealth Priorities

Save 10% of your income.
Invest 10% in other people, according to God's priorities.
Live on 80% of your income.
Be blessed!

B-WAFF - Beautiful, Wonderful, Amazing, Fabulous, Fantastic

Did You B-WAFF Today?
B-WAFF is an acronym created by Rhonda Bryne. It stands for Beautiful, Wonderful, Amazing, Fabulous, Fantastic. These are POWERFUL words that change how one feels, thinks, and behaves. In other words, B-WAFF are positive affirmations that only need to be SAID to cause one to be positive in her feelings, thoughts, and behavior.
Try it. Tell the very next person you see right now: “You are __________”(use one of the B-WAFF words). What was the person’s reaction? How did YOU feel?
As related to P.E.O., they can move a chapter from being ORDINARY to being EXTRAORDINARY.
How is this done? As our State President Ellen Endslow would say, “Easy peasy,”that is, just before you walk into your next chapter meeting, say to yourself, “My chapter is ___________ “(use one of the B-WAFF words). Note what happens!
Oh, by the way, you can also use these words when angry with someone. The next time that you are angry with someone, just say, “You’re just AMAZING!” (Bet you’ll smile!)
So, don’t forget to B-WAFF today!
Alicia King Redfern
PA State Vice President

Quoted from an African missionary's newsletter

Quoted from an African missionary's newsletter, discussing seminary education for pastors:
"The African culture does not believe that men should be involved in the care of young children or even in teaching them. I am trying to convince my class of men that teaching, especially children, should be at the heart of the church. I want to get them excited about teaching Sunday School and making it a fun and enjoyable experience where children can come to know about the love of God.
Most of them look at me with stony faces revealing their aversion to the job, preaching to adults is what they consider the most important part of being a pastor. I pray that these men can become loving and caring fathers as well as pastors who understand the need to reveal the love of God the Father through their example."

The gender imagery that God has given us - C.S. Lewis

https://www.marykassian.com/re-imagining-god-in-the-shack/
quote:
The gender imagery that God has given us is highly important. It reflects critical truths about the nature of the Trinity. Calling him “she” violates his character and important imagery about the nature of our relationship to him. As C.S. Lewis observes,

Common sense, disregarding the discomfort, or even the horror, which the idea of turning all our theological language into the feminine gender arouses in most Christians, will ask “Why not? Since God is in fact not a biological being and has no sex, what can it matter whether we say He or She, Father or Mother, Son or Daughter?”
But Christians think that God Himself has taught us how to speak of Him. To say that it does not matter is to say either that all the masculine imagery is not inspired, is merely human in origin, or else that, though inspired, it is quite arbitrary and unessential. And this is surely intolerable: or, if tolerable, it is an argument …  against Christianity. It is also surely based on a shallow view of imagery. Without drawing upon religion, we know from our poetical experience that image and apprehension cleave closer together than common sense is here prepared to admit; that a child who has been taught to pray to a Mother in Heaven would have a religious life radically different from that of a Christian child. And as image and apprehension are in an organic unity, so, for a Christian, are human body and human soul.
The innovators are really implying that sex is something superficial, irrelevant to the spiritual life… [But] one of the ends for which sex was created was to symbolize to us the hidden things of God. One of the functions of human marriage is to express the nature of the union between Christ and the Church. We have no authority to take the living and semitive figures which God has painted on the canvas of our nature and shift them about as if they were mere geometrical figures… [God images himself as masculine because]…we are all, corporately and individually, feminine to Him.
…The male you could have escaped, for it exists only on the biological level. But the masculine none of us can escape. What is above and beyond all things is so masculine that we are all feminine in relation to it.
(Quotes from C.S. Lewis Essays Notes on the Way and That Hideous Strength.)

https://www.marykassian.com/re-imagining-god-in-the-shack/