questions to ask when you have a problem

I stumbled upon these questions that Quaker groups occasionally ask in helping you analyze problems in your life and why they are problems.

1) If this problem were a landscape, what would it look like?

2) Where in your body do you feel this question?

3) What images come to mind when you think of this problem?

we'll make a celebration

"All nature sings with nothing to bring
In ribbons of glory it wraps
Around our plans
All nations bring their tongues of offering
And in the end all my tables,
they tear down
Where the birds and leaves, they tell me
how I am to sing
So won't you take a cup and chair
and we'll make a celebration..." - Aimee Wilson

weary, working, burdened one

Weary, working, burdened one,
Wherefore toil you so?
Cease your doing; all was done
Long, long ago.

[Ira D. Sankey, "It is Finished!" hymn]

Psalm 130 (From the Depths of Woe)

From the depths of woe I raise to Thee
The voice of lamentation;
Lord, turn a gracious ear to me
And hear my supplication;
If Thou iniquities dost mark,
Our secret sins and misdeeds dark,
O who shall stand before Thee?
O who shall stand before Thee?

To wash away the crimson stain,
Grace, grace alone availeth;
Our works, alas! Are all in vain;
In much the best life faileth;
No man can glory in Thy sight,
All must alike confess Thy might,
And live alone by mercy
And live alone by mercy

Therefore my trust is in the Lord,
And not in mine own merit;
On Him my soul shall rest, His word
Upholds my fainting spirit;
His promised mercy is my fort,
My comfort and my sweet support;
I wait for it with patience
I wait for it with patience

What though I wait the live-long night,
And ’til the dawn appeareth,
My heart still trusteth in His might;
It doubteth not nor feareth;
Do thus, O ye of Israel’s seed,
Ye of the Spirit born indeed;
And wait ’til God appeareth
And wait ’til God appeareth

Though great our sins and sore our woes
His grace much more aboundeth;
His helping love no limit knows,
Our upmost need it soundeth.
Our Shepherd good and true is He,
Who will at last His Israel free
From all their sin and sorrow
From all their sin and sorrow.

[Martin Luther]

compelled by grace to cast my lot

In the shadow of the glorious cross

Compelled by grace to cast my lot 

I’ll discard the loss and bear your name 

Forsaking all for your own fame

Your hymn of grace sung over me 

Abounding forth in glorious streams 

My thirst is quenched by you my Lord 

Sustained am I redeemed restored 

Sustained am I redeemed restored

Hallelujah, Hallelujah 

When death’s dark shadow’s at my feet

When I am plagued by unbelief 

You place my hands into your side 

By precious blood identified 

By precious blood identified 

Hallelujah, Hallelujah 

These crowns I’ve clenched with fisted hands 

I cast them down before the throne 

Of Christ my God the worthy lamb 

Christ crucified, the Great I AM 

Christ crucified, the Great I AM 

Christ crucified, the Great I AM 

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Sojourn, "In the Shadow of the Glorious Cross"]

there's no use living in regret

[JJ Heller, "This Year"]

light afflictions, which are but for a moment, shall only work out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory

"The good man is happy in whatsoever condition he is in; and that, First, because no worldly evils can do him any real hurt; secondly, because of those advantages, spiritual joys and satisfactions, he enjoys while here; and thirdly, more especially from the joyful hope and certain expectation, of the enjoyment of the perfection of happiness, eternally, hereafter. But, First. Because no worldly evils can do him any real hurt. The good [man] is exalted out of the reach of all worldly evils; they cannot send forth their baneful influences so high as to touch him, and all the hurt they can do him is but as a sharp medicine. Although it be bitter, yet [it] takes away those diseases that would in the end, if they were let alone, be a thousand times more painful and troublesome to him. A good man may look down upon all the whole army of worldly afflictions under his feet with a slight and disregard (that is, as evils, for he ought to have the greatest regard to them as they are for his good), and consider with himself and joy therein that, however great they are and however numerous, let them all join their forces together against him and put on their most rueful and dreadful habits, forms and appearances, and spend all their strength, vigor and violence with endeavors to do him any real hurt or mischief, and it is all in vain. He may triumph over them all knowing this: light afflictions, which are but for a moment, shall only work out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and, that although sorrow continue for a night, yet joy cometh in the morning: remembering God's promise that all things shall surely work together for his good, and nothing shall offend. If he loses all the worldly good things he has, his estate, friends and relations, or if his body is put to the greatest tortures and pains imaginable, he may consider that it is all best for him that it should be, and that all the hurt they can do him is only to his body. And our Savior has commanded us not to fear them that even kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; and whatever the world does against him, he has that to comfort him, that Christ has overcome the world."

[Jonathan Edwards, from his sermon "Christian Happiness"]

everything is necessary

"Everything is necessary that He sends. Nothing can be necessary that He withholds." 

[John Newton]

we'll find our rest

"And in this Child we’ll find our rest

And all the meek and lowly blessed
An infant tongue could sing the hymn
Of Hallelujah and Amen

Amen, Amen
I've found my life
I've found my life
in Him
Amen, Amen"

[Sojourn Music, "Amen, Amen"]

have confidence to take risks for His name sake

"Obsessing over the future is not how God wants us to live, because showing us the future is not God's way. His way is to speak to us in the Scriptures and transform us by the renewing of our minds. His way is not a crystal ball. His way is wisdom. We should stop asking for God to reveal the future to us and remove all risk from our lives. We should start looking to God and His character and promises- and thereby have confidence to take risks for His name sake."

[Kevin DeYoung]

resistance to the yoke

It is not the yoke, but resistance to the yoke, that makes it heavy. 

[Andrew Murray]

disperse the gloomy clouds of night

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

deserving of life

"Birch trees
Teach me that I am nothing
And that I am deserving of life."

[Muriel Barbery in The Elegance of the Hedgehog]

fantastic blankness and boredom

"My health improved wonderfully in spite or because of all the fantastic blankness and boredom."

[Vladimir Nabakov's Lolita, chapter 9]

let me learn by paradox

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou has brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold
Thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter
Thy stars shine;

Let me find Thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty
Thy glory in my valley.

- Puritan prayer

hope to handle your scars

“Christ’s resurrection not only gives you hope for the future; it gives you hope to handle your scars right now.”

[Tim Keller]

tyranny of workplace identity

“The Sabbath is a declaration of freedom from the tyranny of workplace identity placed on us in culture.” 

[Tim Keller]

soaked with the sense of exile

“Certainly there was an Eden on this very unhappy earth. We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with the sense of ‘exile’.”

[J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Ed. Humphrey Carpenter (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000), 110. Tolkien penned these words in a letter to his son, Christopher Tolkien, on January 30, 1945.]

not with the nature of number

"True, we can reckon with numbers -- but not with the nature of number."

[Martin Heidegger in "...Poetically Man Dwells..."]

full of his qualities is the face of the sky

"What is God? Unknown, yet
Full of his qualities is the
Face of the sky."

[Hölderlin]