my strength of soul

"On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased."

[Psalm 138:3]

the truth shall make you mad

"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you mad."

[Aldous Huxley]

on the way to the cross

"Even if our own troubles are great, we should still serve. Jesus washed His disciples feet on the way to the cross.”

[Tim Keller]

On the Paucity of Pat Answers

Many people think Christianity gives a lot of pat answers. It really does the opposite. Lately, I've noticed how cryptic some of Jesus' sayings are and how his sermons seem to be a series of non sequiturs. He doesn't use the three-point sermon model; no, He is not that clear. The paucity of pat answers in the Bible complicates things and challenges my thinking. It is mysterious, confusing, and complex. And there are no simple answers, as much as I would like there to be. By faith, I believe the Bible is divinely inspired, which is why I haven't given up trying to understand difficult passages or uncomfortable ideas. In between the famous Judge Not paragraph and the Golden Rule paragraph sits something just as powerful but more often neglected. "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Asking, seeking, and knocking involve much more proactivity than simple pat answers do. It takes effort to wrestle with God, with questions, and with truth.

beautiful Russian Orthodox choral music

just a blip

I have Jesus.

Everything else is a blip in the scope of eternity.

peace in unemployment

"O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore."

[Psalm 131]

God is the director of HR.
My soul can be calm and quiet.

the quiet and the lengthy

"Love is the quiet and the lengthy, not the noisy and the spectacular."

[Tim Keller]

not half so restrained

"The ungodly are not half so restrained in their blasphemy as we are in our praise."

[Charles Spurgeon]

death wrapped in shiny wrappers

"Our sinful hearts are quick to purchase death wrapped in the shiny wrappers of our lusts."

[Erik Raymond]

the person they are growing into

"When looking for a spouse, you should be looking at the person they are growing into as much as the person they are today."

[Tim Keller]

a man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God

"A man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God or of a future existence with retribution and reward, can have for his rule of life, as far as I can see, only to follow those impulses and instincts which are the strongest or which seem to him the best ones...."

[Charles Darwin from The Autobiography of Charles Darwin]

but also not with their own good

"Who is pure in heart? Only those who have completely given their hearts to Jesus, so that he alone rules in them. Only those who do not stain their hearts with their own evil, but also not with their own good. A pure heart is the simple heart of a child, who does not know about good and evil, the heart of Adam before the fall, the heart in which the will of Jesus rules instead of one’s own conscience.… A pure heart is pure of good and evil; it belongs entirely and undivided to Christ; it looks only to him, who goes on ahead. Those alone will see God who in this life have looked only to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Their hearts are free of defiling images; they are not pulled back and forth by the various wishes and intentions of their own. Their hearts are fully absorbed in seeing God. They will see God whose hearts mirror the image of Jesus Christ."

[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]

"There is no greater misery than false joys."

[Bernard of Clairvaux]

balm of hurt minds

Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast.

[William Shakespeare]

everything depends on the heart, on you

"Goods are given to us to be used, but not to be stored away. Just as Israel in the desert received manna daily from God and did not have to worry about food and drink, and just as the manna which was stored from one day for another rotted, so should Jesus’ disciples receive their share daily from God. But if they store it up as lasting treasure, they will spoil both the gift and themselves. The heart clings to collected treasure. Stored–up possessions get between me and God. Where my treasure is, there is my trust, my security, my comfort, my God. Treasure means idolatry.

But where is the boundary between the goods I am supposed to use and the treasure I am not supposed to have? If we turn the statement around and say, What your heart clings to is your treasure, then we have the answer. It can be a very modest treasure; it is not a question of size. Everything depends on the heart, on you. If I continue to ask how can I recognize what my heart clings to, again there is a clear and simple answer: everything which keeps you from loving God above all things, everything which gets between you and your obedience to Jesus is the treasure to which your heart clings."

[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]

go placidly

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

[Max Ehrmann, 1927]

many such things are in his mind

For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind. 

[Job 23:14]

excellent job security

"Tortured souls are excellent job security for therapists." - paraphrased from a friend

to do all the things you'd like to do

"The only way to do all the things you'd like to do is to read."

[Tom Clancy]