"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance." C.S. Lewis

"Christianity, if false, is of no importance,
and if true, of infinite importance.
The only thing it cannot be is moderately important."

~ C. S. Lewis

The Race We Are In

quote from William A. Ritter, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com:

Several years ago, I told you a story about one of my all-time favorite people. Not that I know her, or have even met her. But I admire her. Because one day, at age 42, in beautiful downtown Cleveland, she ran a marathon by accident (all 26 miles, 385 yards of it). 

Her name was Georgene Johnson. Still is. As you will recall, she lined up with the wrong group at the starting line. Not the 10K group, where she belonged. But the 26-mile group, where she didn't. 

It wasn't until the four-mile mark that she realized her mistake. So she just kept going, finishing the race in four hours and four minutes. 

But it's what she said later (by way of explanation) that has stayed with me since. Said Georgene: "This isn't the race I trained for. This isn't the race I entered. But, for better or worse, this is the race I'm in."

Which is true more often than you might think. Relatively few of us are exactly where we figured we'd be....doing exactly what we figured we'd be doing. But we are where we are, and (for better or worse) we're keeping our feet moving.

"​​In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity" ~ Rupertus Meldenius

 "​​In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity"

~ Rupertus Meldenius, German Lutheran theologian of the early seventeenth century

https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/essentials-unity-non-essentials-liberty-all-things

quote:

​In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity

Mark Ross

Philip Schaff, the distinguished nineteenth-century church historian, calls the saying in our title “the watchword of Christian peacemakers.” Often attributed to great theologians such as Augustine, it comes from an otherwise undistinguished ​German Lutheran theologian of the early seventeenth century, ​​Rupertus Meldenius. The phrase occurs in a tract on Christian unity written (circa 1627) during the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), a bloody time in European history in which religious tensions played a significant role. The saying has found great favor among subsequent writers such as Richard Baxter, and has since been adopted as a motto by the Moravian Church of North America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Might it serve us well as a motto for every church and for every denomination today?

etc.

“Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

“Black care,” Roosevelt later wrote of his deliverance from depression, “rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough.”

“mutual love and mutual respect”

To have a happy marriage you need “mutual love and mutual respect.”

~ Dr. Judd Shields

“40 is the old age of youth; 50 the youth of old age”

"40 is the old age of youth; 50 the youth of old age" 

~ Victor Hugo, French Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician, author of the novels The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables  (1802-1885)

“in his will is our peace" ~ Dante Alighieri

“in his will is our peace" 

~ Dante Alighieri, Italian poet, writer, and philosopher (1265-1321)

Jane Goodall - "your life matters"

"You may not know it, you may not find it, but your life matters, and you are here for a reason."

~ Jane Goodall, Conservationist

Jesus: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven"

Matthew 7:21-2 ^ESV  -  I Never Knew You

²¹ "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

²² On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' 

²³ And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'"

Will we play baseball in heaven?

quote from Gordon MacDonald: 

"When I was a child, I had a Sunday school teacher who was talking about heaven one day. And she said, in heaven, everything's going to be perfect. There's going to be no sin. There's going to be no tears. 

And I raised my hand.

I said, Ms. Cummins, will we play baseball in heaven? 

She said, well, I don't know, Gordon, but I'm sure that Jesus will arrange that if you'd like to play baseball.

So I said, well, then tell me, if we play baseball, every time the pitcher throws a ball, it'll be a strike. And the batter will always hit it for a home run, and the center fielder will always catch it for an out. How does this work? 

And she said, Gordon, that's the stupidest question I've ever heard.

And some of the theologians at Denver Seminary, when I told that story, said, that was a brilliant question. That's a six-year-old describing one of the most complicated spiritual truths there is."

from Steve Macchia, Leadership Transformations, The Discerning Leader Podcast: Gordon Macdonald – Part 1 | Summer 2025: Rewind, Episode 8, Aug 21, 2025, "Gordon MacDonald on The View from 80, 15 Life and Leadership Lessons After Eight Decades on the Planet"

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-discerning-leader-podcast/id1523104085

Former colleagues, students and friends remember Dr. Walter Brueggemann

Former colleagues, students and friends remember Dr. Walter Brueggemann

Panelists at Columbia Theological Seminary share stories about their friend and mentor, who died June 5 at age 92

October 9, 2025, Mike Ferguson, Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — This week the Columbia Theological Seminary community remembered beloved Old Testament Professor Walter Brueggemann by convening a panel of his friends and admirers to talk about what made Brueggemann the celebrated teacher and author that he was. 

Brueggemann, who wrote more than 100 books and inspired generations of pastors and scholars, died June 5 in Traverse City, Michigan, at age 92. In 2003, he concluded his influential and prolific academic career at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, where he taught for 17 years.

Quotes:

Dr. Bill Brown of Columbia Theological Seminary:

“His words are poetic. There’s a passion behind them that makes them persuasive and compelling,” Brown said. “Walter’s work has made it impossible to do biblical studies without a compassionate concern for people in pain.”

Brueggemann did more than put the “so what?” in biblical studies, Brown said. “He put the prophetic ‘therefore’ in biblical studies.

When Brown was a graduate student, Brueggemann put on a Lenten series on the Psalms at a local PC(USA) church. “He came in and sucked the oxygen out of the room. He had this commanding presence,” Brown said. “I had never witnessed a Bible lecture as performance art before.”

“He invited us to write a lament from the perspective of a Palestinian mother,” Brown recalled. “That was 40 years ago, and it always stuck with me.”

Dr. Davis Hankins of Appalachian State University:

“He made us believe the Bible really matters.”

Dr. Kathleen M. O’Connor, professor emerita at Columbia Theological Seminary:

“It’s obvious this man had an incredible integrative intelligence,” O’Connor said. “What he had that the average bear doesn’t have is discipline and devotion.” Normally the first one in the office, Brueggemann would write for 90 minutes every morning, she said.

https://pcusa.org/news-storytelling/news/2025/10/9/former-colleagues-students-and-friends-remember-dr-walter-brueggemann

Dog Tired

"Parenting is not a sprint. It's not even a marathon. Parenting is a dogsled trek across Antarctica in the middle of winter, and you're the dog."

~ Dr. Michael J. Svigel

@Svigel

God's Power, God's Goodness, and God's Wisdom

Three main features of Christianity that attract many people:
God's Power, God's Goodness, and God's Wisdom.

Dr. Diogenes Allen, Spiritual Theology, 1997, pp. 43, 111.

"From the Spark may burst a Mighty Flame" ~ Dante

"From the Spark may burst a Mighty Flame"

~ Dante Alighieri,  
Italian poet, writer, and philosopher, (1265-1321)

Meditation as a foundational requirement at Princeton Theological Seminary

quote:

[When] the founders of Princeton Theological Seminary established guidelines for student conduct in 1812, they listed meditation as a foundational requirement for all seminarians:

It is expected that every student in the Theological Seminary will spend a portion of time every morning and evening in devout meditation, and self-recollection and examination; in reading the holy Scriptures solely with a view to a personal and practical application of the passage read, to his own heart, character, and circumstances, and in humble fervent prayer, and praise to God in secret. 

David B. Calhoun, Princeton Seminary, vol. 1, Faith and Learning 1812–1868 (Banner of Truth, 1994), 425.

In commending meditation like this, the leadership of old Princeton was simply following the broader Reformed tradition, throughout which we find a constant commitment to meditation as a key means God has chosen to build us up in faith.

quoted from:

How Exactly Do I Meditate?
Protestant and Catholic Visions in Tension
by Matthew Bingham, Professor, Phoenix Seminary, September 17, 2025
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-exactly-do-i-meditate  as of 9/17/2025

Are You Really Listening?

In his book Directions, author James Hamilton shares this insight about listening to God: 

"Before refrigerators, people used icehouses to preserve their food. Icehouses had thick walls, no windows, and a tightly fitted door. In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled to the icehouses, and covered with sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the summer.

One man lost a valuable watch while working in an icehouse. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but didn't find it. His fellow workers also looked, but their efforts, too, proved futile. 

A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the icehouse during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch.

Amazed, the men asked him how he found it.

“I closed the door,” the boy replied, “lay down in the sawdust, and I kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking.”

"A proud man is always looking down on things and people . . . "

"A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and of course, as long as you are looking down, you can't see something that's above you."

~ C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”

“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good,
but that God will make us good because He loves us.”

~ C. S. Lewis

“Deal with it. Get over it. Or get help.”

"Deal with it. Get over it. Or get help."

"In moments of crisis, the initiative passes to those who are best prepared."

The Laws of the Public Policy Process

by Morton C. Blackwell

1. Never give a bureaucrat a chance to say no.
2. Don't fire all your ammunition at once.
3. Don't get mad except on purpose.
4. Effort is admirable. Achievement is valuable.
5. Make the steal more expensive than it's worth.
6. Give 'em a title and get 'em involved.
7. Expand the leadership.
8. You can't beat a plan with no plan.
9. Political technology determines political success.
10. Sound doctrine is sound politics.
11. In politics, you have your word and your friends; go back on either and you're dead.
12. Keep your eye on the main chance and don't stop to kick every barking dog.
13. Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good.
14. Remember the other side has troubles too.
15. Don't treat good guys like you treat bad guys.
16. A well-run movement takes care of its own.
17. Hire at least as many to the right of you as to the left of you.
18. You can't save the world if you can't pay the rent.
19. All gains are incremental; some increments aren't gains.
20. A stable movement requires a healthy, reciprocal I.O.U. flow among its participants. Don't keep a careful tally.
21. An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.
22. Never miss a political meeting if you think there's the slightest chance you'll wish you'd been there.
23. In volunteer politics, a builder can build faster than a destroyer can destroy.
24. Actions have consequences.
25. The mind can absorb no more than the seat can endure.
26. Personnel is policy.
27. Remember it's a long ball game.
28. The test of moral ideas is moral results.
29. You can't beat somebody with nobody.
30. Better a snake in the grass than a viper in your bosom.
31. Don't fully trust anyone until he has stuck with a good cause which he saw was losing.
32. A prompt, generous letter of thanks can seal a commitment which otherwise might disappear when the going gets rough.
33. Governing is campaigning by different means.
34. You cannot make friends of your enemies by making enemies of your friends.
35. Choose your enemies as carefully as you choose your friends.
36. Keep a secure home base.
37. Don't rely on being given anything you don't ask for.
38. In politics, nothing moves unless pushed.
39. Winners aren't perfect. They made fewer mistakes than their rivals.
40. One big reason is better than many little reasons.
41. In moments of crisis, the initiative passes to those who are best prepared.
42. Politics is of the heart as well as of the mind. Many people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
43. Promptly report your action to the one who requested it.
44. Moral outrage is the most powerful motivating force in politics.
45. Pray as if it all depended on God; work as if it all depended on you.

Morton C. Blackwell, President, Leadership Institute

http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/resources/resourcesmain.cfm?section=speeches&s=11 as of 6/17/2006