Dallas Willard: "Why are Christians so mean to one another so often?"

quotes from Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard:

Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right (always in terms of their beloved vessel, or tradition) than it is to be Christlike...

It aims to get people into heaven rather than to get heaven into people...

Now, the project thus understood and practiced is self-defeating. It implodes upon itself because it creates groups of people who may be ready to die, but clearly are not ready to live. They rarely can get along with one another, much less those "outside." Often their most intimate relations are tangles of reciprocal harm, coldness, and resentment. They have found ways of being "Christian" without being Christlike....

As a result they actually fall far short of getting as many people as possible ready to die, because the lives of the "converted" testify against the reality of "the life that is life indeed" (ontos zoas, 1 Timothy 6:19, PAR).

- Dallas Willard (Renovation of the Heart)

www.facebook.com/theologywithhumility

Dallas Willard on "Why are Christians so mean to one another so often?"

quotes from Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ, 2002

Mean Christians: “a mean-spirited suspicion and judgment that mirrors the broader culture … you can be vilified for just the slightest move that is displeasing to someone” 

“Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right [about church traditions] … than it is to be Christlike.  In fact, being right licenses you to be mean, and indeed, requires you to be mean—righteously mean, of course.  You must be hard on people who are wrong, and especially if they are in positions of Christian leadership.  They deserve nothing better.  This is … the practice of ‘condemnation engineering.’” (p. 238) 

Result:  groups of people who “rarely can get along with one another, much less those ‘outside.’ Often their most intimate relations are tangles of reciprocal harm, coldness, and resentment.” — “being ’Christian’ without being Christlike” (p. 239)

Another Result: “multitudes of people (surrounded by churches) who will not be in heaven because they have never, to their knowledge, seen the reality of Christ in a living human being” (p. 239)

(YIKES!!!)

“In a crisis, if you’re prepared, you win.”

“In a crisis, if you’re prepared, you win.”

~ Jorge H. Martínez, the owner of a small Mexican company near the U.S. border who is grateful for Trump's tariffs.

“Truth is, this whole thing benefited us.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/world/americas/mexico-trump-tariffs.html

When Mark Twain married Olivia Langdon . . .

When Mark Twain married Olivia Langdon, he told a friend:

"If I’d known how happy married life would make me, I’d have married 30 years earlier—skipping the whole business of growing teeth."

He was 32 at the time.

They couldn’t have been more different. Samuel Clemens (Twain’s real name) grew up in a poor family, worked from a young age, and tried his hand at everything — from piloting steamboats to mining silver — before becoming a writer. Olivia was the refined daughter of a wealthy businessman.

Twain fell in love with her… before they even met. A friend showed him a locket with Olivia’s portrait and invited him to visit. Within two weeks of meeting her in person, he proposed. She declined. Twice. The first time, she cited the age gap and his rough manners. The second time, his lack of religious devotion. Twain promised to become a good Christian for her, but still, she hesitated — even though in her heart, she already loved him.

Fate intervened when his carriage overturned on the way out of town. Pretending to be seriously injured, Twain ended up back in her home. Olivia offered to nurse him — and after yet another proposal, she finally said “yes.”

From that day on, Twain did everything to keep her happy. He read her the Bible every evening, prayed before meals, and even kept 15,000 pages of his writing unpublished because he knew she wouldn’t approve. She was his first editor, censoring anything too bold — once even removing Huck Finn’s “Confound it!” because it was too coarse.

Twain once said: “I’d stop wearing socks if she told me it was immoral.” She called him her “gray-haired boy” and looked after him as if he were one. In return, he credited her with keeping his energy, humor, and childlike spirit alive.

Even in hard times — losing children, bankruptcy, Olivia’s illness — they leaned on each other. Twain’s humor was her medicine; he filled their home and garden with silly notes to make her smile, even instructing birds when and how loudly to sing outside her window.

They never raised their voices to each other, never had a scandal, and never stopped being each other’s safe place. For one of her birthdays, Twain wrote:

"Every day we’ve lived together has deepened my certainty that we will never regret uniting our lives. With every year, my love for you, my dear, grows stronger. Let’s look forward — to future anniversaries, to old age — without fear or sadness."

A love story for the ages. 🥰

from Facebook, origin and validity unknown

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

~Mark Twain

"Grief is unused love with nowhere to go."

"Grief is unused love with nowhere to go."

~Rabbi Steven Z. Leder of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Los Angeles, CA

The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/style/jessica-assaf-dean-prince-wedding.html

“It is just as important to walk 7,000 steps a day as it is to take your pills,” said Dr. Joshua Knowles.

TAKE 7,000 STEPS

Are you getting in your steps? The supposed magic daily number, 10,000, has long been a fitness cliché. Researchers have come up with a more scientifically sound goal, and thankfully, it’s also more attainable: 7,000 steps.

To arrive at that number, researchers analyzed more than 50 studies. They found that even a small amount of walking was beneficial: Regular, moderate walks were associated with a lower risk of dementia and cardiovascular disease. But more is better, and people who walked 7,000 steps a day — roughly three miles — have a 47 percent lower risk of death compared with those who walked 2,000 steps.

“It is just as important to walk 7,000 steps a day as it is to take your pills,” said Dr. Joshua Knowles, a cardiologist at Stanford Health Care.

July 27, 2025  (email)

Don't Light Your Own Torch!

 Isaiah 50:10-11 NIV

10 Who among you fears the Lord
    and obeys the word of his servant?
Let the one who walks in the dark,
    who has no light,
trust in the name of the Lord
    and rely on their God.

11 But now, all you who light fires
    and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
go, walk in the light of your fires
    and of the torches you have set ablaze.
This is what you shall receive from my hand:
    You will lie down in torment.

(Trust God instead of lighting your own torch.)

20 Inspirational Quotes from Pope Francis

20 Inspirational Quotes From Pope Francis That People Will Remember for a Very Long Time

This post originally appeared at inc.com.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/20-inspirational-quotes-from-pope-francis-that-people-will-remember-for-a-very-long-time/ar-AA1Ds5R2

Story by Bill Murphy Jr. • 4/22/2025

quotes:

I’ve compiled some of his most inspiring quotes below, that business leaders and others might find intriguing, even those who aren’t religious.

Note: Pope Francis’s first language was Spanish, and he was fluent and comfortable in Italian and Latin. Thus, his English-language quotes are almost always translations.

“The Lord never tires of forgiving. It is we who tire of asking for forgiveness.”

“You pray for the poor and then you feed them. That’s how prayer works.”

“The perfect family doesn’t exist, nor is there a perfect husband or a perfect wife, and let’s not talk about the perfect mother-in-law! It’s just us sinners. A healthy family life requires frequent use of three phrases: ‘May I?’ ‘Thank you,’ and ‘I’m sorry.’

“To be saints is not a privilege for a few, but a vocation for everyone.”

“So many of you have lost everything. I don’t know what to say to you. But the Lord does know what to say to you.” (Context: Pope Francis was speaking to survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013.)

“Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity. They are children, women, and men who leave or who are forced to leave their homes for various reasons, who share a legitimate desire for knowing and having, but above all for being, more.”

“Dear young people, do not bury your talents, the gifts that God has given you! Do not be afraid to dream of great things!”

“The measure of the greatness of a society is found in the way it treats those most in need, those who have nothing apart from their poverty!”

“If I repeated some passages from the homilies of the Church Fathers, in the second or third century, about how we must treat the poor, some would accuse me of giving a Marxist homily.”

“I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars. You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else.”

“Just as we need the courage to be happy, we also need the courage to live simply.”

“An authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized.”

“If we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities. The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us.”

“Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‘Do I love my people in order to serve them better?’ [and] ‘Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions, in order to choose the best path?'”

“Embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important.”

“Holiness doesn’t mean doing extraordinary things, but doing ordinary things with love and faith.”

“Let us not be satisfied with a mediocre life. Be amazed by what is true and beautiful, what is of God!”

“If money and material things become the center of our lives, they seize us and make us slaves.”

“I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.”

Finally, and a bit longer than the others above, is this last quote, which comes from Pope Francis’s final public speech, his Urbi et Orbi (“to the city and to the world”) address on Easter Sunday:

“What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day …
How much violence we see, often even within families, directed at women and children! How much contempt is stirred up at times toward the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants!
On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas! For all of us are children of God!”

This post originally appeared at inc.com.

“within every analogy is a fallacy”

"Within every analogy is a fallacy.”

"False Analogy. This fallacy erroneously suggests that because two things are alike in some regards, they are similar in all ways."
~ The Longman Reader, p. 728

Turtle by Kay Ryan

Turtle by Kay Ryan 

Who would be a turtle who could help it? 
A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet, 
she can ill afford the chances she must take 
in rowing toward the grasses that she eats. 
Her track is graceless, like dragging 
a packing case places, and almost any slope 
defeats her modest hopes. Even being practical, 
she’s often stuck up to the axle on her way
to something edible. With everything optimal, 
she skirts the ditch which would convert 
her shell into a serving dish. She lives 
below luck-level, never imagining some lottery
will change her load of pottery to wings. 
Her only levity is patience, 
the sport of truly chastened things.

"Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he's created?"

Question: "Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he's created?"

quote:
The phrase "Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he's created?" originates from the 2002 film "Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams," where it is spoken by the character Dr. Romero, played by Steve Buscemi. In the film, Dr. Romero is afraid to go out into the world due to the creatures he created, leading him to contemplate whether God, too, stays in heaven out of fear. This line has since become a popular catchphrase used to express disappointment or disdain in various contexts, often in ironic memes.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Spy_Kids_2:_The_Island_of_Lost_Dreams 

Answer: "No, God does not live in fear of what he has created! 
God loves his creation and God has ultimate power, control, and justice."

GOD'S PATIENCE

2 Peter 3:9 ESV
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Romans 2:4 ESV
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

John 3:16-17 ESV
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Philippians 4:6 ESV
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

James 5:7-8 ESV
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Revelation 6:9-11 ESV
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

Joel 2:13 ESV
And rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

Psalm 37:7-9 ESV
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!
Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Isaiah 40:31 ESV
But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Exodus 34:6 ESV
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

Ecclesiastes 7:8 ESV
Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

Isaiah 30:18 ESV
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

Matthew 24:42 ESV
Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”

~ Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche,
from “Twilight of the Idols” published in 1889. 

The quote is also often cited by pioneering existential psychiatrist Viktor Frankl.

"The best revenge is not to resemble your enemies"

 New York Times
Tuesday, May 27, 2025, p. A1, A6

Embassy Aide Quietly Buried Back in Israel

By ISABEL KERSHNER
BEIT ZAYIT, Israel - 

Weeks before, Yaron Lischinsky had made plans to travel to Israel on Sunday with his partner, Sarah Milgrim. He wanted to introduce her to his family for the first time and, relatives said, propose to her. 

Instead, Mr. Lischinsky, 30, was laid to rest on Sunday at sunset, in a small cemetery a short walk from his family home in the village of Beit Zayit, nestled in the wooded hills west of Jerusalem.

Mr. Lischinsky and Ms. Milgrim, 26, were gunned down on Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington as they left a reception for young professionals and diplomats hosted by the American Jewish Committee.

The gunman, identified by the police as Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, cried out, "Free, free Palestine!" as he was being apprehended - a call heard in protests around the world against Israel and its war in Gaza, which was ignited by the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Mr. Rodriguez has been charged with the murder of foreign officials, first-degree murder and other crimes. The U.S. authorities said they would also be investigating the attack as a hate crime and a crime of terrorism.

. . . 

Mr. Lischinsky came from a culturally mixed background with a Jewish father and a Christian mother, and was a practicing Christian, according to brother, Hanan Lischinsky, 32

People who had worked with Mr. Lischinsky in the embassy said that over his last two years there, he had identified as Jewish.

The funeral service blended religious traditions and elements. A leader of the Hebrew-speaking King of Kings congregation of Jerusalem - part of a Messianic community that says its mission is to reveal the true face of Jesus to Israel - officiated alongside representatives of the Orthodox Jewish burial society.

"The best revenge is not to resemble your enemies," one of Mr. Lischinsky's family members, who the family asked not to be identified, said during the eulogies. "I choose love and not hate."

"The terrorist who killed my brother," the family member added, "I want to tell him that I love him, that I forgive him, and already I am not angry with him. If one day I see him I will give him a big hug, and I will tell him what a human Yaron was, and I will tell the terrorist how much God loves him, and that I am full of love toward him."

"If there is no God, nothing matters. If there is a God, nothing else matters"

"If there is no God, nothing matters.
If there is a God, nothing else matters"

~ H.G. Wells

“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something”

“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something,” says Thorin Oakenshield in J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved fantasy novel The Hobbit.
“You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”

~ J. R. R. Tolkien
British writer and philologist,
author of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit

Tolkien on the death of his friend C. S. Lewis

After Lewis' death, Tolkien would say, “So far I have felt the normal feelings of a man my age — like an old tree that is losing all its leaves one by one; this feels like an axe-blow near the roots.”

~ J. R. R. Tolkien
British writer and philologist,
author of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit

"Wars tend to cause more problems than they solve."

"Wars tend to cause more problems than they solve."

~ Howard Zinn

What Is Unique About Christianity?

http://www.sermoncentral.com/illustrations/sermon-illustration-martin-dale-stories-love-15299.asp

What Is Unique About Christianity?

The story of Jesus sitting and debating the Law with rabbis reminds me of another debate that took place in a comparative religions conference, the wise and the scholarly were in a spirited debate about what is unique about Christianity. 

Someone suggested what set Christianity apart from other religions was the concept of incarnation, the idea that God became incarnate in human form. But someone quickly said, “Well, actually, other faiths believe that God appears in human form.” 

Another suggestion was offered: what about resurrection? The belief that death is not the final word. That the tomb was found empty. Someone slowly shook his head. Other religions have accounts of people returning from the dead.

Then, as the story is told, C.S. Lewis walked into the room, tweed jacket, pipe, armful of papers, a little early for his presentation. He sat down and took in the conversation, which had by now evolved into a fierce debate. 

Finally during a lull, he spoke saying, “what's all this rumpus about?” Everyone turned in his direction. Trying to explain themselves they said, “We're debating what's unique about Christianity.” 

“Oh, that’s easy,” answered Lewis. “It’s grace.”

The room fell silent.

Lewis continued that Christianity uniquely claims God’s love comes free of charge, no strings attached. No other religion makes that claim.

After a moment someone commented that Lewis had a point. Buddhists, for example, follow an eight-fold path to enlightenment. It’s not a free ride.

Hindus believe in karma, that your actions continually affect the way the world will treat you; that there is nothing that comes to you not set in motion by your actions.

Someone else observed the Jewish code of the law implies God has requirements for people to be acceptable to him and in Islam God is a God of Judgment not a God of love. You live to appease him.

At the end of the discussion everyone concluded Lewis had a point.  Only Christianity dares to proclaim God’s love is unconditional. An unconditional love that we call grace.

"Good relationships keep us happier and healthier."

quotes:

In 2003, the psychiatrist Robert Waldinger accepted a new job at Harvard, where he had long been affiliated, overseeing one of its most prized research projects. . . . Waldinger, the fourth steward of the Harvard study, was moved by the consistency of his own research. . . .

 Much of it added up to one key insight: “The clearest message that we get from this 75-year study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period,” he said in a TED Talk in 2015. Strong, long-term relationships with spouses, family and friends built on deep trust — not achievement, not fortune or fame — were what predicted well-being. Waldinger had worried that his big reveal was so intuitive that he would be laughed off the stage; instead, the talk is one of TED’s most watched to date, with more than 40 million views.

"How Nearly a Century of Happiness Research Led to One Big Finding" By Susan Dominus, May 1, 2025, New York Times,
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/magazine/happiness-research-studies-relationships.html

This "key insight" is actually 2,000-year-old wisdom:

Gospel
John 13:34-35 NRSV
Jesus Christ: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."