"you feel like you're alone, but people can relate"

Hidden haiku from an interview with Jeanie Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers owner and a standup comic: 

“These things happen and /
 you feel like you’re alone, but /
 people can relate.”

New York Times The Morning email, July 13, 2021

"We've got to get on together and we've got to look after what we've got."

David Makay, the Scottish spaceman piloting Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic flight, says we've got to get on together and we’ve got to care for what we have - it is a small planet:

"But when you're up in space you're looking directly down... the colours on the ground look incredibly vivid and in contrast to this incredibly dark sky.

"And then on top of all that you see so much of the curvature of the Earth and you get a sense of scale of the planet and you realise it's not very big."

He said: "It's the remoteness and fragility and our utter dependence on the thinness of the atmosphere. 

"I would like to think that some of the outcomes are people will take more care of what they're doing, be much more open minded about who we are all - we're all one human race and we're all sharing this small planet that's so remote. 

"There's nothing else practically habitable within reach. We've got to get on together and we've got to look after what we've got."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-57786412  accessed 7/11/2021

Everything You Love

 "Everything you love comes from God.

When it dies, it returns to God.

God knows that you need love,
so he will send love back to you
in another form."

~ Truthful Grace, July 12, 2021

Home

"Home is not where you were born.
Home is where all your attempts to escape cease."

~ Omar Taher, writer

"Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in."

~ Robert Frost, The Death of the Hired Man

“Winter is the time for comfort,
for good food and warmth,
for the touch of a friendly hand
and for a talk beside the fire:
it is the time for home.”

~ Edith Sitwell

“After all," Anne had said to Marilla once, "I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.”

~ Lucy Maud Montgomery,  Anne of Avonlea

“We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.”

~ Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon

“There is nothing more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.”

~ Homer, The Odyssey

“What is home? My favorite definition is 'a safe place,' a place where one is free from attack, a place where one experiences secure relationships and affirmation. It's a place where people share and understand each other. Its relationships are nurturing. The people in it do not need to be perfect; instead, they need to be honest, loving, supportive, recognizing a common humanity that makes all of us vulnerable.”

~ Gladys Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life

“Home isn't where you're from, it's where you find light when all grows dark.”

~ Pierce Brown, Golden Son

"I close myself off from so much of the world"

“Dandelions remind me of the way I close myself off from so much of the world, either because it’s too painful to see or feel, or because when I am open to people, the ridicule comes.”

~ Dara McAnulty, “Diary of a Young Naturalist,” on the natural world around his home and on his autism

In 2020, “Diary of a Young Naturalist” won the Wainwright Prize, Britain’s biggest award for nature writing.

from The New York Times "Evening Briefing" email, July 8, 2021

"life is a trouble”

“Well, I think life is a trouble”. 

~ Queen Elizabeth II, July, 2021

https://twitter.com/i/status/1413080022265499651 

"Success is a collection of problems solved."

"Success is a collection of problems solved."

~ I. M. Pei

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, July 5, 2021:

As an internationally renowned architect, I. M. Pei was well-versed in the power of problem-solving. Two of his most famous building designs, the John F. Kennedy Library and the Hancock Tower in Boston, faced numerous issues along the way, but Pei felt that such challenging projects helped toughen him as an architect, and would stand the test of time. Pei’s words ... remind us that our satisfaction at the finish line actually springs from the hardships we overcame along the way.

"Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort."

"Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort."

~ Fred Rogers, creator and host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which ran from 1968 to 2001. 

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, July 2, 2021:

A major theme of his show was helping kids to understand their emotions, to know that “feelings are mentionable and manageable.” But Mister Rogers also acknowledged that it can take a lifetime to understand and love ourselves for the complicated, wonderful human beings that we are.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

~ President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the throes of the Great Depression

"a wound collector in the Oppression Olympics"

 Asra Nomani, vice president of Parents Defending Education, describing a "supremist":

"Her wound is bigger than their wound—a wound collector in the Oppression Olympics."

"A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for."

"A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for."

~ John A. Shedd, 1928

"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality."

"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality."

~ Carl Sagan

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, June 26, 2021:

American astronomer Carl Sagan was known and much beloved for his research on extraterrestrial life and the cosmos, which he shared with the public in his earnest, enthusiastic manner on his 1980 TV show “Cosmos,” the most widely watched series in the history of American public television. 

In his book "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark," Sagan noted that even the simplest scientific concept, fully grasped, can elicit a spiritual experience. “The very act of understanding is a celebration of joining, merging, even if on a modest scale, with the magnificence of the cosmos,” he wrote. “When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual.”

"There’s a wall between you and what you want and you got to leap it."

"There’s a wall between you and what you want and you got to leap it."

Bob Dylan
from song “The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar,” album “Shot of Love,” 1981

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, June 25, 2021

"I can’t go on. I will go on.”

"You must go on.

I can’t go on.

I will go on.”

~ Samuel Beckett, The Unnamable

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

~ Edith Wharton

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, June 22, 2021:

This beautiful line comes from Edith Wharton’s long poem “Vesalius in Zante (1564)". The speaker of the poem is Inquisition-era anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), who left Spain to travel to the East in his fifties, when he could no longer bear to live and work in a society that forbade his scientific research. On his way home from Jerusalem, Vesalius was shipwrecked on the Greek island of Zante, where he fell ill and died, never to return home.

In the poet’s imagining, the censored scientist finds consolation at the end of his life in the faith that others will carry on the work he was prevented from: “What one man failed to speak, another finds / Another word for,” Wharton writes. In other words, carrying on the “light” of another — be it ideas, joy, love, or inspiration — can be just as valuable as creating it yourself.

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."

~ Marie Curie

quote from Inspiring Quotes email, June 20, 2021:

Marie Curie is best known for her scientific breakthroughs in radiation and radioactivity, which won her two Nobel Prizes. Even after her husband and research partner Pierre Curie died, Marie carried on their work, introducing the first X-ray machines to the frontlines of World War I. 

She spoke these brave words upon discovering that her long-term exposure to radiation during her research had given her leukemia. Her rational outlook applies not just to science and mortality, but also to life: If we approach the unknown without fear, we’re more likely to gain understanding we didn’t have before.

"If today were the last day of your life, would you want to be doing what you're doing?"

Inc.
Steve Jobs Knew Accepting This Brutal Truth Was Essential for a Truly Successful Life
Jessica Stillman 6/16/2021

quote:

every morning Steve Jobs would look in the mirror and ask himself, "If today were the last day of your life, would you want to be doing what you're doing?"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careers/steve-jobs-knew-accepting-this-brutal-truth-was-essential-for-a-truly-successful-life/ar-AAL6o2p

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

 "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

~ Mahatma Gandhi

Political Issues at Church

"The way [Christians] fight each other here on earth, it’s going to be kind of awkward when they see each other in heaven. They won’t be able to fight anymore. They’ll probably just shrug and say, 'ok, let’s have a potluck.'”

~ Drew Dyck, Contributing Editor,
Church Humor Newsletter (email), Thursday, June 10, 2021,
christianitytoday.com

Love takes off the masks ...

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/177066-love-takes-off-the-masks-that-we-fear-we-cannot

Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without
and know we cannot live within. 

I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense
but as a state of being, or a state of grace -
not in the infantile American sense of being made happy
but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.

~ James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

How Venus Williams copes with the press

Venus Williams - her response to the uproar surrounding Naomi Osaka’s press boycott at the French Open:

HuffPost quote: 

During a press conference after her first-round loss to Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova, Williams shared her own strategy for coping with the press throughout her career.

“For me personally, how I cope, how I deal with it, was that I know every single person asking me a question can’t play as well as I can and never will,” the 40-year-old said. “So no matter what you say, or what you write, you’ll never light a candle to me.”

“That’s how I deal with it. But each person deals with it differently,” she added.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/venus-williams-naomi-osaka_n_60b6b27ee4b001ebd46b3042

“Do you love me?”

In a famous Hasidic story, a rabbi asks his disciple: “Do you love me?”

To which the disciple replies: “Of course I love you!”

The rabbi continues. “Do you know what causes me pain?” he asks.

“Rabbi, how can I know what causes you pain?”

To which the rabbi responds: “If you do not know what causes me pain, how can you say that you love me?”

(from Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin)

quotes on education

 Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.

~ B.F. Skinner

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.

~ Vernon Law [baseball player] in Sports Legends on Success

My idea of education is to unsettle the minds of the young and inflame their intellects. 

~ Robert Maynard Hutchins

It is love that asks, that seeks, that knocks, that finds, and that is faithful to what it finds. 

~ St. Augustine

(from Rev. Dr. Kang Na, Westminster College)

“Cooking is ❤️ made visible.”

“Cooking is ❤️ made visible.” 

~ KitchenAid email

"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."

 "The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." 

~ G.K. Chesterton

"I got 99 problems, but Romans 8:1"

 "I got 99 problems, but Romans 8:1"

~ Josh Howerton, Lakepointe Church member, Rockwall, Texas
@howertonjosh
May 16, 2021

quoted in May 20, 2021 Church Humor Newsletter <newsletter@e.christianitytoday.com>   

(Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,)

The Reality Behind the Dream of Total Freedom

"The inside joke about freedom—one that early settlers understood perfectly well and that this man would have found out soon enough—is that you’re always trading obedience to one thing for obedience to another."

The Reality Behind the Dream of Total Freedom
A walking trip with friends reveals the deeply American appeal of independence—and the truth about how much we need one another.
By Sebastian Junger
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/the-reality-behind-the-dream-of-total-freedom-11620919592
May 13, 2021 11:26 am ET

—This essay is adapted from Mr. Junger’s new book, “Freedom,” which will be published May 18 by Simon & Schuster.

When your child dies

... You know, my encouragement to the parents is

it is hard, and could take years and years,

but if you want to get close to your child,

get close to God. Your child is with God.

~ Victoria Osteen

Joel and Victoria Osteen on coping with tragedy

TRANSCRIPT Published December 17, 2012, 

Last Update January 8, 2015

https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/joel-and-victoria-osteen-on-coping-with-tragedy

Let's try to eliminate the afters...

 Email:

Subject: So true

 

Barely the day started and... it's already six in the evening.

Barely arrived on Monday and it's already Friday.

.. and the month is already over.

.. and the year is almost over.

.. and already 40, 50 or 60 years of our lives have passed.

.. and we realize that we lost our parents, friends.

and we realize it's too late to go back...

So... Let's try, despite everything, to enjoy the remaining time...

Let's keep looking for activities that we like...

Let's put some color in our grey...

Let's smile at the little things in life that put balm in our hearts.

And despite everything, we must continue to enjoy with serenity this time we have left.

Let's try to eliminate the afters...

I'm doing it after...

I'll say after...

I'll think about it after...

We leave everything for later like ′′ after ′′ is ours.

Because what we don't understand is that:

Afterwards, the coffee gets cold...

afterwards, priorities change...

Afterwards, the charm is broken...

afterwards, health passes...

Afterwards, the kids grow up...

Afterwards parents get old...

Afterwards, promises are forgotten...

afterwards, the day becomes the night...

afterwards life ends...

And then it's often too late....

So... Let's leave nothing for later...

Because still waiting see you later, we can lose the best moments,

the best experiences,

best friends,

the best family...

The day is today... The moment is now...

We are no longer at the age where we can afford to postpone what needs to be done right away.

So let's see if you have time to read this message and then share it.

Or maybe you'll leave it for "later"..

“Inch by inch, anything’s a cinch.”

 “Inch by inch, anything’s a cinch.”

~ Dr. Robert Schuler

"Talent is universal, but opportunity is not."

"Talent is universal, but opportunity is not."

~ Nicholas Kristof,
New York Times, Sunday, May 9, 2021

"Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always."

"Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always."

~ Robin Williams

Leslie Robison: eight options to say no, with a bit of advice

from Leslie Robison's coaching and consulting blog:

Eight options to say no, with a bit of advice

https://www.masteryconsulting.net/post/yes-because-i-can-t-say-no

Here are eight options to say no, with a bit of advice: only the first four work to your advantage. Notice none of them offer a reason for declining. It’s your choice to explain your decision or not. 

1. No.

2. No, thanks.

3. Thank you for asking, but I can’t.

4. Maybe next time. 

5. Absolutely not! 

6. I would never do that!

7. Are you out of your mind? 

8. Not a snowballs’ chance in hell. 

Use them carefully, simply, and intentionally and protect your time, money, and peace of mind confidently.

On second thought, I already had plans for that time and money. Ask me another time. And thanks for asking. 

Leslie Robison, Coaching and Consulting

"the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces"

Isaiah 25:6–9 ^NRSV

⁶ On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
⁷ And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
⁸ he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
⁹ It will be said on that day,
Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

“May God in his mercy lead us through these times; but above all, may he lead us to himself.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man who stood for Christ and against not just Hitler but also the Christendom of his day, penned this benediction from prison: “May God in his mercy lead us through these times; but above all, may he lead us to himself.” 

Diane Langberg, PhD
@DianeLangberg, https://twitter.com/DianeLangberg, Apr 11, 2021

"Kindness is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear."

 "Kindness is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear."

~ Mark Twain

"Some luck lies not in getting what you want but getting what you have . . . "

"Some luck lies not in getting what you want but getting what you have, which — once you take a good look — you may realize is what you would’ve wanted if you had only known. I’m not sure that sentence is grammatically correct but it’s true."

~ Garrison Keillor

"Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire."

"Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire."

~ Gustav Mahler
Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer and conductor, 1860-1911

"Most people do not admire enough."

"Admire as much as you can. Most people do not admire enough."

~ Vincent van Gogh, Dutch post-impressionist painter

Philosophy of Atheist Auguste Comte

 “Reorganisation, irrespectively of God or king, by the worship of Humanity, systematically adopted. Man’s only right is to do his duty. The Intellect should always be the servant of the Heart, and should never be its slave.“ 

—  Auguste Comte 
Title Page A General View of Positivism (1848, 1856)
Source: https://quotepark.com/authors/auguste-comte/

(note: Warren Buffet quoted Comte in in a 1985 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter regarding Berkshire’s failing textile businesses:  “I ignored Comte’s advice – ‘the intellect should be the servant of the heart, but not its slave’ – and believed what I preferred to believe.”)

“Nothing is destroyed until it is replaced.”

—  Auguste Comte
https://www.azquotes.com/author/3165-Auguste_Comte

“But now, I, August Comte, have discovered the truth. Therefore, there is no longer any need for freedom of thought or freedom of the press. I want to rule and to organize the whole country.”

—  Auguste Comte
https://www.azquotes.com/author/3165-Auguste_Comte

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

~ Eleanor Roosevelt, philanthropist and First Lady of the United States from March 4, 1933, to April 12, 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office

"It’s you who can change the world.”

 “When the whole world is silent,
even one voice becomes powerful.”

“Do not wait for someone else to come and speak for you.
It’s you who can change the world.”

~ Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl's education advocate who, at the age of 17 in 2014, became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize after surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban

“There is nothing the resurrection won’t cure.”

 “There is nothing the resurrection won’t cure.”

Rev. Dr. Timothy Keller, Hope in Times of Fear

One by one, our comrades slip away

From Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Wind, Sand, and Stars.

Saint-Exupery is best known for his book, The Little Prince. He flew in the 1920s and 1930s for what later became Air France. In those days, accidents were frequent. Saint-Exupery writes about the experience of showing up at the airfield and hearing that one more friend had died.

Bit by bit, nevertheless, it comes over us that we shall never again hear the laughter of our friend, that this one garden is forever locked against us. And at that moment begins our true mourning, which, though it may not be heartrending, is still slightly bitter. For nothing, in truth, can replace that companion. Old friends cannot be created out of hand. Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions. It is idle, having planted an acorn in the morning, to expect that afternoon to sit in the shade of the oak.

So life goes on. For years we plant the seed, we feel ourselves rich; and then come other years when time does its work and our plantation is made sparse and thin. One by one, our comrades slip away, deprive us of their shade. ⁴

⁴Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Wind, Sand, and Stars (London, UK: The Folio Society, 1990), 26.

'You can prove 'em right or you can prove 'em wrong."

Tom Brady reflects on his NFL Combine performance 17 years ago

abc, WCVB NewsCenter 5, FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Updated: 9:24 PM EST Mar 3, 2017

https://www.wcvb.com/article/tom-brady-reflects-on-his-nfl-combine-performance-17-years-ago/9090781

quote:

As many of the top prospects of the NFL Draft participate in the NFL Combine, a five-time Super Bowl champion offered some advice.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady reflected back on his own Combine experience, and shared his thoughts with the participants.

“This is what they said about me then,” Brady wrote on Facebook. “Poor build, skinny, lacks great physical stature and strength, lacks mobility and ability to avoid the rush, lacks a really strong arm, can’t drive the ball downfield, does not throw a really tight spiral, system-type player who can get exposed if forced to ad lib, gets knocked down easily.”

Brady was selected with the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, and 17 years later, he is a five-time Super Bowl champion, four-time Super Bowl MVP and two-time NFL MVP.

“As Julian Edelman always reminds me… 'You can prove 'em right or you can prove 'em wrong,'" Brady wrote, as he wished the Combine participants the best in their performance.

"The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws."

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53311867 

BBC News - US & Canada

Cancel culture: What unites young people against Obama and Trump

Published 7 July 2020

quote:

Obama: 'The world is messy'

Last October [2019], former President Barack Obama challenged cancel culture and the idea of being "woke" - a term describing being alert to injustices and what's going on in the community - saying change was complex.

"I get a sense among certain young people on social media that the way of making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people," Mr. Obama said.

"The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws."

“Never let THEM define YOU‼️” @tb12sports

 “Never let THEM define YOU‼️” @tb12sports

~ Tom Brady, age 43, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, after winning Super Bowl LV held on February 7, 2021, as well as winning Super Bowl MVP

the only difference between an adventure and an ordeal

 “My daddy was a farmer. He used to say the only difference between an adventure and an ordeal is how you look at it.” 

~ Cindy, age 83, Feb. 17, 2021, on surviving the  storms, freezing weather, and power outages in Texas

“There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”

 “There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”

~ Robert Graves, British historical novelist, classicist, and critic

Leon Morris - why I write

"I hate writing. Perhaps this is because I write so badly.

The tool I use most frequently is the waste paper basket. But I still write. Why I wonder? To be practical, money has something to do with it I imagine.

But for one so far from the bestseller lists there must be many easier ways of staying alive. I think the basic answer is that a writer must write. To write is difficult. Not to write is sheer agony. I don’t like agony, so I write. 

And I write in the hope that what I write will be of interest and of help to those who read. I write on biblical topics for these seem to me far and away the most significant. I hope that writing and these topics will bring writer & reader nearer to God."  

~ Leon Lamb Morris (1914–2006),
Australian New Testament scholar, Anglican priest, University of Cambridge PhD on The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross

“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

"The best welfare program is a job."

"The best welfare program is a job."

~ Ronald Reagan

"Whenever you have truth it must be given with love"

 "Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected."

~ Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian Political Leader (1869-1948)

Trust, but verify.

"Trust, but verify."

~ Ronald Reagan

Truth is incontrovertible

 https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/truth-is-incontrovertible/

‘United wishes and good will cannot overcome brute facts,’ Churchill wrote in his War Memoirs. ‘Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it. Malice may distort it. But there it is.’

~ Winston Churchill, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1940-1945 during the Second World War, and again 1951-1955

“The cross is steady while the world turns”

 “The cross is steady while the world turns.”

~ motto since the Middle Ages of the Carthusian monks who make Chartreuse at the Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps

According to legend, in 1605, the order’s monastery near Paris acquired an alchemist’s historical manuscript for a superbly concocted medicinal tonic of about 130 herbs and crops: the “Elixir of Long Life.”

The monks studied and slowly refined the recipe till by 1764 that they had a potent (138-proof) Elixir Végétal. In 1840, they formulated a milder, 55 p.c alcohol model, Green Chartreuse, and a sweeter, 40 p.c Yellow Chartreuse, which have become cocktail components The Elixir continues to be offered medicinally for illnesses akin to indigestion, sore throat and nausea.

"You can't hold a man down without staying down with him."

"You can't hold a man down without staying down with him."

~ Booker T. Washington

Before brains the universe was free of pain and anxiety.

"Prior to the advent of brain, there was no color and no sound in the universe, nor was there any flavor or aroma and probably little sense and no feeling or emotion. Before brains the universe was also free of pain and anxiety."

—Roger Sperry, "Changing Priorities," Annual Review of Neuroscience 4 (1981): 1-15.

Observe

 "You observe a lot by watching."

~ Yogi Berra

"gratitude is what makes optimism sustainable"

Michael J. Fox reveals scariest moment of risky surgery in 'No Time Like the Future'

Charles Trepany, USA TODAY, Nov. 17, 2020
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2020/11/17/michael-j-fox-spinal-surgery-no-time-like-future/6191909002/  accessed Nov. 21, 2020

quotes from Trepany's interview with Michael J. Fox about his new book 'No Time Like the Future':

"I was lying on the floor in my kitchen with a shattered arm waiting for the ambulance to show up," Fox tells USA TODAY. "I kind of went, 'What an idiot. All this time you've been telling everybody to be optimistic, chin-up, and you're miserable now. There's nothing but pain and regret. There's no way to put a shine on this.'" . . .

"That was a real breakthrough moment for me, because I realized that I've been selling that optimism to people for so long," he continues. "I believe it's true to my core, but it struck me that at that point I questioned it, and I questioned it really severely. And so the rest of the book is this journey through finding my way back with gratitude. And I think gratitude is what makes optimism sustainable." . . .

Despite the dark situations in his book, Fox never loses his sense of humor, something the actor says he and his wife have used to cope with challenges throughout their marriage.

"We deal with what's funny in the situation at first," Fox says. "We laugh about it and then we deal with it. But always humor. Humor is the filter for everything."

Through his recovery, falling and then needing to recover again, Fox says he realized the importance of being realistic while still optimistic. In fact, the actor says acknowledging bleak realities is the first step to improving your state of mind.

"I think the first thing you have to do is accept if you're faced with a difficult situation," he says. "And once I do that, that doesn't mean I can't ever change it. I can change it, but I have to accept it for what it is first, before I can change it. And I have to be real about it. And once I do that, then it opens all doors." . . .

After all, as Fox learned after his fall, "life gets better the more you decide to take it easy on yourself."

"Just give yourself a break, and, by that token, give the people in your life a break," he adds. "Give your neighbor a break. Give the person who bags your groceries a break. Just give everybody a break. Give them the benefit of the doubt and move on."

That's where the fun is.

 "I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That's where the fun is."

~ Donald Trump

https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/donald-trump-3378.php

it is quiet then, and words come from their hiding hearts

quote:

Here are the words of Jeeney Ray,(8) a spastic girl who is an orphan and who has had few experiences of intimacy in her life time. Then along comes an adult who cares:

I study him well and receive the kindred of one to another. . . . I reach as far into his eyes as I can to understand the fullness of what he says and the way he looks me over; puzzled back in thinking is how he is, and grinning and frowning, then going way down to pierce darkness. . . . It is when thinking is coming from the other person into yourself and touching the same thinking as the other person; it is quiet then, and words come from their hiding hearts.

8. Iris Domfield, Jeeney Ray (New York: The Viking Press, 1962), pp. 44, 50.

quoted in:

The Intimate Marriage by Howard J. and Charlotte H. Clinebell, Chapter 8: Developing Parent-Child Intimacy, https://www.religion-online.org/book-chapter/chapter-8-developing-parent-child-intimacy/ as of 11/7/2020. 

 

Fired Hillsong Church pastor Carl Lentz: "I did not do an adequate job of . . . refilling my own soul"

Fired Hillsong Church pastor Carl Lentz: I cheated on my wife

By Hannah Frishberg  November 5, 2020 

https://nypost.com/2020/11/05/fired-hillsong-pastor-carl-lentz-i-cheated-on-my-wife/

quote:

A day after it was revealed that celebrity pastor Carl Lentz was fired from star-studded Hillsong for “leadership issues and breaches of trust,” the specifics of his “moral failures” have come to light: Lentz cheated on his wife.

“I was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life and held accountable for that,” Lentz wrote of his affair to his 680,000 followers in an Instagram post of his family Thursday, which had already accrued over 43,000 likes as of this writing.

Instagram Post quoted, my underlines added:

carllentz

Our time at HillsongNYC has come to an end. This is a hard ending to what has been the most amazing, impacting and special chapter of our lives. Leading this church has been an honor in every sense of the word and it is impossible to articulate how much we have loved and will always love the amazing people in this church. 

When you accept the calling of being a pastor, you must live in such a way that it honors the mandate. That it honors the church, and that it honors God. When that does not happen, a change needs to be made and has been made in this case to ensure that standard is upheld. 

Laura and I and our amazing children have given all that we have to serve and build this church and over the years I did not do an adequate job of protecting my own spirit, refilling my own soul and reaching out for the readily available help that is available. When you lead out of an empty place, you make choices that have real and painful consequences. I was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life and held accountable for that. This failure is on me, and me alone and I take full responsibility for my actions. 

I now begin a journey of rebuilding trust with my wife, Laura and my children and taking real time to work on and heal my own life and seek out the help that I need. I am deeply sorry for breaking the trust of many people who we have loved serving and understand that this news can be very hard and confusing for people to hear and process. I would have liked to say this with my voice, to you, in person because you are owed that. But that opportunity I will not have. So to those people, I pray you can forgive me and that over time I can live a life where trust is earned again. 

To our pastors Brian and Bobbie, thank you for allowing us to lead, allowing us to thrive and giving us room to have a voice that you have never stifled or tried to silence. Thank you for your grace and kindness especially in this season, as you have done so much to protect and love us through this. 

We, the Lentz family, don’t know what this next chapter will look like, but we will walk into it together very hopeful and grateful for the grace of God.

To get anywhere in life . . .

"My view is that to get anywhere in life you have to be anti-social.
 Otherwise you'll end up being devoured."

~ Sir Sean Connery, who exemplified James Bond

God's Call

"Once I gave you power,
all that you could be.
Live into that grace
and follow me."

~ Truthful Grace

Planning for Three Generations

“Rich People plan for three generations.
Poor people plan for Saturday night.” 

~ Gloria Steinem

“Start unknown, finish unforgettable.” Misty Copeland

Misty Copeland quotes

“Start unknown, finish unforgettable.”

― Misty Copeland

“[He] said don't let them take you over. Walk into the room knowing you are the best. Shoulders back, chin up. Their attitudes will totally change.”

― Misty Copeland

“It's time to write our own story.”

― Misty Copeland

“I may not be there yet, but I am closer than I was yesterday”

― Misty Copeland

“Decide what you want. Declare it to the world. See yourself winning. And remember that if you are persistent as well as patient, you can get whatever you seek.”

― Misty Copeland, Ballerina Body: Dancing and Eating Your Way to a Leaner, Stronger, and More Graceful You

“Know that you can start late, look different, be uncertain and still succeed.”

― Misty Copeland

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7155409.Misty_Copeland  as of 10/21/2020

God's Answers to Your Prayers

 God's Answers to Your Prayers:

• Yes
• Not Yet
• I have something better in mind

The Blessed Limp

 quote, email from Preaching Today of Christianity Today, 10/21/2020

My Dear Shepherds,

Ever since I staggered through a sermon early in my career on Jacob wrestling with the man/angel/God in Genesis 32:22-32, I’ve been drawn to this mysterious, profound story. One of the vexing puzzles was this: The whole struggle came down to Jacob weeping and begging, “I will not let you go until you bless me,” so I’d expect to hear a blessing, but it seems like we never do.

This is not a one-off story. It is archetypal, repeated in the lives of all those blessed by God. In the upside-down world of his grace, God surrenders his blessing only to those whom he defeats. . . .

God will do what he must to bring us to our knees before him. This happens to every believer, perhaps not because of sin, but always to bless us. C. S. Lewis wrote, “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”

Every Christian biography, written, told, or only held silently in our hearts—every single one—has a chapter telling the story of the blessed limp. In his autobiography, Love Hunger, my friend and classmate, David Kyle Foster, wrote how after an amazing saving by Christ and a superb theological education, he could find no place to minister. He writes,

One night, I poured out my heart to God, telling Him that I could not take it anymore. Since He had placed this powerful call on my life, He needed to give it an outlet or just take me home. My heart was weighed down with heaviness, as if an elephant were sitting on it. I cried out, “Lord, I’m literally dying inside.” In His still, small voice, He gently replied, “That’s what’s supposed to be happening.” As soon as He said it, I knew that it was not only true—it was wonderfully true. As if I were looking in a mirror for the first time, I saw that I was full of myself—my ardor, my training, my need to be affirmed. Yes, I needed to die. Otherwise, my service for the Kingdom would be polluted with self rather than being a selfless overflowing of my love for Him.

. . .

Pastor Lee Eclov

Always abounding in the work of the Lord

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 

~ 1 Corinthians 15:57-58 ESV/NET

This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 
Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

~ Philippians 3:13b-15 KJV

Affliction and Pruning

 The most generous vine, if not pruned, runs out into many superfluous stems and grows at last weak and fruitless: so doth the best man if he be not cut short in his desires, and pruned with afflictions.

—Bishop Hall

A Dictionary of Thoughts, Affliction, Rev. Dr. Tryon Edwards, p. 11.

Snowdrops, by Louise Glück

Snowdrops 

Poem by Louise Glück 

Do you know what I was, how I lived? 

You know 

what despair is; then 

winter should have meaning for you. 

I did not expect to survive, 

earth suppressing me. I didn't expect 

to waken again, to feel 

in damp earth my body 

able to respond again, remembering 

after so long how to open again 

in the cold light 

of earliest spring-- 

afraid, yes, but among you again 

crying yes risk joy 

in the raw wind of the new world. 

from The Wild Iris by Louise Glück 

Ecco, 1993

take care of the people around us by nourishing them — Ina Garten

quote:

Pandemic living 

Garten also spends time taking care of herself with yoga via Zoom, walking, working in the garden and taking long drives to the beach with her husband, Jeffrey, in their Mini Cooper. They also have socially distanced cocktail parties in their yard with friends, who bring their own snacks and drinks. 

"That was the thing I missed the most, seeing my friends," she says. "And being able to see them from 6 feet apart—it didn't really matter that it's 6 feet away. It's not that far." 

Garten wants everyone to remember that during these stressful times many people are facing additional serious issues, such as illness, loss of their jobs or struggling to feed their families. 

"I think if we can take care of ourselves and the people around us by feeding them well, and giving them things that feel comforting, I think we'll all be so much better off. Just nourishing people—not just feeding them dinner, but kind of nourishing them psychologically—I think it's a really wonderful thing," Garten says.  "And I've always said, cooking for people is the best gift you can give them. And it just shows that you love them and you care about them. And so, I think it's particularly important. It's always important, but it's particularly important now."

"Modern Contessa" by Christina Guerrero, Costco Connection, October 2020, p. 40-41