“The pastor should love his people extravagantly.”

“The pastor should love his people extravagantly.”

~ Robert C. Anderson, The Effective Pastor: A Practical Guide to the Ministry
(Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1985), 365.

the eternal rules of order and right

"The propitious smiles of heaven cannot be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right that heaven itself has ordained."

~ George Washington

"our Lord is with us, protecting us and leading us into the fullness of joy"

 Do not accuse yourself that your tribulation and your woe is all your fault; for I do not want you to be immoderately depressed or sorrowful. For I tell you that whatever you do, you will have woe. . . . The remedy is that our Lord is with us, protecting us and leading us into the fullness of joy.

—Julian of Norwich (1342-1416?), Revelations of Divine Love, Long Text 77

the two arms of God

“When the Trinity turns toward the world, the Son and the Spirit become, in Irenaeus’s beautiful image, the two arms of God by which humanity was made and taken into God’s embrace.”  

Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996),  128.

“In his will is our peace.”

“In his will is our peace.”

― Dante, The Divine Comedy, Paradise

following quote from
https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/paradiso/paradiso-3/

The pilgrim’s question gives Piccarda the opportunity to explain that heaven is a place where one’s desire is always satisfied, where desire cannot possibly exceed the measure of what one has, and where it is always aligned with the will of the transcendent power. In other words, the souls of paradise are completely happy with the grace that is apportioned to them:

E ’n la sua volontade è nostra pace:
ell’è quel mare al qual tutto si move
ciò ch’ella cria o che natura face.
(Par. 3.85-87)

And in His will there is our peace: that sea
to which all beings move—the beings He
creates or nature makes—such is His will.

"You have the scriptures, which serve you not as maps but as a compass."

When, like Abraham, you are called to go out, not knowing where you are going: 

“You have the reality of the living Christ himself as your north star.
You have the scriptures, which serve you not as maps but as a compass.”

—Thomas W. Gillespie (1928-2011),

President of Princeton Theological Seminary 1983-2004,
June 2, 1986 commencement address

https://commons.ptsem.edu/id/02266

"It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible-reading people."

 "It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom."

~ Horace Greeley (1811–1872), American newspaper publisher and politician

Pilate thought all truth was relative

 “Pilate was cynical; he thought that all truth was relative.  To many government officials, truth was whatever the majority of people agreed with or whatever helped advance their own personal power and political goals.
When there is no basis for truth, there is no basis for moral right and wrong.  Justice becomes whatever works or whatever helps those in power.
In Jesus and His Word we have a standard for truth and for our moral behavior.”

~ Mark 15 footnotes, Faithlife NIV Study Bible, Zondervan

"We'd love each other better, If we only understood."

 If We Only Understood

by Anonymous

Could we but draw back the curtains
That surround each other's lives,
See the naked heart and spirit,
Know what spur the action gives,
Often we should find it better
Purer than we judged we should,
We should love each other better,
If we only understood.

If we knew the cares and trials,
Knew the efforts all in vain,
And the bitter disappointment,
Understood the loss and gain—
Would the grim, eternal roughness
Seem—I wonder—just the same?
Should we help where now we hinder?
Should we pity where we blame?

Ah, we judge each other harshly,
Know not life's hidden force:
Knowing not the fount of action
Is less turbid at its source:
Seeing amid the evil
All the golden grain of good:
And we'd love each other better.
If we only understood.

https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/if-only-we-understood

"A friend you have to earn; enemies you get for nothing."

 "A friend you have to earn;
enemies you get for nothing."

~ Proverb

"Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles."

 "Wear a smile and have friends;
wear a scowl and have wrinkles.
What do we live for if not to
make the world less difficult for each other?"

"Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking."

~ George Eliot (1819-1880), British woman author

good friends or ardent enemies

 "As a matter of self-preservation,
a man needs good friends or ardent enemies,
for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task."

~ Diogenes

profile of heaven

 “My only sketch, profile of heaven, is a large blue sky, and larger than the biggest I have seen in June―and in it are my friends―every one of them.”

~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), American poet

A faithful friend is an image of God.

A faithful friend is an image of God.

~ French Proverb

‘Need’ now means wanting someone else’s money. ‘Greed’ means wanting to keep your own. ‘Compassion’ is when a politician arranges the transfer.

 American journalist and writer Joe Sobran (1946-2010) wrote in The Economics of Liberty (1990);

"In the current political vocabulary, ‘need’ means wanting to get someone else’s money.
‘Greed,’ which used to mean what “need” now means, has come to mean wanting to keep your own.
‘Compassion’ means the politician’s willingness to arrange the transfer.”

This has usually been condensed to:

“‘Need’ now means wanting someone else’s money.
‘Greed’ means wanting to keep your own.
‘Compassion’ is when a politician arranges the transfer.”

https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/need_now_means_wanting_someone_elses_money/

Singing Emily Dickinson's poems

 from Facebook:

Emily Dickinson's use of the common meter enables one to sing pretty much all of her poems to the tune of Gilligan's Island, The Yellow Rose of Texas, etc.

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me.
The Carriage held but just Ourselves,
And immortality.

~ Kerstin Schwandt
Sept. 24, 2019

Mine!

 From Abraham Kuyper’s speech to open the Free University in 1880 in Amsterdam, which he founded as an expression of this philosophy:

"There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!' " 

Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920)
Pastor, theologian, scholar, journalist, educator, and Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905.

Honor the Sabbath Day

 “Don’t feel totally, personally, irrevocably, eternally responsible for everything. That’s my job.”

~ God, as told to Dr. Bernie Siegel

"Its okay to feel it or think it, but don't show it or say it."

reader comment by James Trott about what we learn by losing in sports:

I have been fortunate enough to  help coach some fantastic young female athletes, and the motto has always been "its okay to feel it or think it, but don't show it or say it." Thought this article hits home as we all lose more than we win in everyday life.

https://www.wsj.com  accessed 1/14/2021

"My acquaintance with loss has sustained me during the stormy passages of my life . . ."

quote from Pat Conroy's book My Losing Season:

"My acquaintance with loss has sustained me during the stormy passages of my life when the pink slips came through the door, when the checks bounced at the bank, when I told my small children I was leaving their mother, when the despair caught up with me, when the dreams of suicide began feeling like love songs of release. It sustained me when my mother lay dying of leukemia, when my sister heard the ruthless voices inside her, and when my brother Tom sailed out into the starry night in Columbia, South Carolina, sailed from a fourteen story building and plunged screaming to his death, binding all of his family into his nightmare forever. Though I learned some things from the games we won that year, I learned much, much more from loss."

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

~ Albert Einstein

"You never let a serious crisis go to waste."

 "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

Rahm Emanuel
Wall Street Journal, November 19, 2008.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mzcbXi1Tkk

"Never let a good crisis go to waste."

 Winston Churchill quotes:

"Never let a good crisis go to waste."

"You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer."

"If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law."

"We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." 

~ Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during WW II

You wanna fly?

You wanna fly, you got to give up the sh-t that weighs you down.

~ Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

Setting Boundaries

"The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say 'No' to almost everything."

~ Warren Buffett

"When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated. This is why we sometimes attack who they are, which is far more hurtful than addressing a behavior or a choice."

~ Brené Brown (2010). The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are," p.33, Simon and Schuster.

"You best teach people about healthy boundaries by you enforcing your healthy boundaries on them."

 ~ Bryant McGill, American author and speaker

"Whatever you are willing to put up with, is exactly what you will have."

~ Anonymous

"You get what you tolerate."

~ Henry Cloud

https://www.habitsforwellbeing.com/20-inspirational-quotes-on-boundaries/   as of 1/9/2021

“toxic loyalty culture”

A “toxic loyalty culture” prioritizes the leader's legacy over everything else, preserving the leader's power at the cost of its Christian witness.

Leaders must commit to accountability and total transparency to avoid corporate complicity and a "toxic loyalty culture.”

Sāi Wēng lost his horse

The Most Famous Chinese Horse Proverb

One of the most famous horse proverbs is 塞翁失馬 (Sāi Wēng Shī Mǎ) or Sāi Wēng lost his horse. The meaning of the proverb is only apparent when one is familiar with the accompanying story of Sāi Wēng, which begins with an old man who lived on the frontier:

Sāi Wēng lived on the border and he raised horses for a living. One day, he lost one of his prized horses. After hearing of the misfortune, his neighbor felt sorry for him and came to comfort him. But Sāi Wēng simply asked, “How could we know it is not a good thing for me?”

After a while, the lost horse returned and with another beautiful horse. The neighbor came over again and congratulated Sāi Wēng on his good fortune. But Sāi Wēng simply asked, “How could we know it is not a bad thing for me?”

One day, his son went out for a ride with the new horse. He was violently thrown from the horse and broke his leg. The neighbors once again expressed their condolences to Sāi Wēng, but Sāi Wēng simply said, “How could we know it is not a good thing for me?” 

Later, the Emperor’s army arrived at the village to recruit all able-bodied men to fight in the war. Because of his injury, Sāi Wēng’s son could not go off to war, and was spared from certain death.

"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."

 "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."

~ C. S. Lewis