Leaving

Brennan Manning says that God gives himself most fully to us in solitude, but we should not expect that we leave God behind when we leave our solitude. 

Wild Animals

Watch out, there will always be “wild animals.”

A beautiful thought from C.S. Lewis: 

The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other point of view, letting that larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.

– from Mere Christianity

Having

Each of us has our own currency in which we deal, and we long to amass more of it: money, time, power, comfort. The trick is being satisfied with and present to what is in front of you, whether it be poverty, busy-ness, powerlessness or distress. 

Scarcity

Even in our affluent nation, we live from a psychology of scarcity. There is never enough time or money, or whatever we have set our hearts on as that which will fulfill us. Funny, I don’t think nations with much less have this problem. Do we have what we need for today?

Listen

The Lord is not only speaking to you. He is speaking to those around you. It would be a good idea to listen well. 

Frankl

One of the more profound things I have read: 

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Relationships II

The disorder must be beautiful. It is what makes our world unpredictable and free. We are free to make decisions, travel on seemingly random trajectories, create “abstractly,” and the direction of the universe does not seem to be fixed. Instead, it appears to us defined by our decisions, thoughtful and otherwise. It is loose and forgiving enough to accept our missteps and meandering. This is grace – that we can choose and determine outcome after outcome. And the whole is greater ...  Keep reading

Relationships I

The thing about relationships is that they are ever-changing. They seem to be stable or stuck, but they are actually a series of forces which are ever-moving, not unlike the forces that act on the tectonic plates, of which our earth is made up. These forces push and pull and make up what we see on an everyday basis, but they are nearly imperceptible. Sometimes they erupt, and we witness catastrophe or great beauty. More often, however, they exert their subtle effect on the world around us and, ...  Keep reading