the God who has called us.

"growth in the christian life is not required only because we are morally deficient, but also because the God who has called us is infinitely rich. therefore, conversion denotes the necessity of a turning of the self that is so fundamental that the self is placed on a path of growth for which there is no end."

-stanley hauerwas.

direction.

"no other area of observance required such strict adherence to formalities as the ritual at the temple in Jerusalem. the description of the rules and customs according to which the ceremonies of sacrifice were conducted occupies almost a whole section of the mishnah. significantly, however, the two main tractates of that section begin with a statement about the inner attitude of the priest, stressing the principle that the validity of the ceremony depends first of all upon what goes on in the mind of the priest. having set forth all the minutiae of the priest's performance, the editor of the mishnah resumes the original principle and concludes the second tractate with a statement that almost sounds like a proclamation:

'it amounts to the same, whether one offers much or little - provided one directs his heart to heaven.'"

-abraham joshua heschel.

"As I have read the Gospels over the years, the belief has grown in me that Jesus did not come to found an organized religion but came instead to found an unorganized one. He seems to have come to carry religion out of the temples into the fields and sheep pastures, onto the roadsides and the banks of the rivers, into the houses of sinners and publicans, into the town and the wilderness, toward the membership of all that is here. Well, you can read and see what you think."

-wendell "jayber crow" berry.

the joy set before us.

"There is this crazy tendency I have - and maybe you have it too - to believe that joy is a single shining moment of happiness. That it's the high peak on a line chart, the instant when everything comes together and adds up and is good. It is always a moment, or the next moment at least, that we are waiting for. When all of life aligns the way we want it to. Right?

But in stooping to peer under the rocky entrance of a Bethlehem stable, I find that my theory falls apart. Because here is Joy to the world: his skin red from birth, limbs flopped to his sides in newborn-sleep. Here is a mother - exhausted? A father - scared? Amid the chill of night, here is the stink of manure, the quiet chaos of new life. The unsettling hush of a place that is not home. Here is Joy: an infant in a feed trough, low enough for sheep to be curious and to knock him awake with their chins. Our Redeemer? At face value nothing aligns, and it doesn't make a drop of sense.

Joy is not the froth and lightness we tend to long for and expect. Joy is an anchor; it is heavy. It falls into the coldest, deepest dark places, where the current and pressure are enough to crush bone, and it holds there. On the surface the waves crash and roll, and we are not steady but we are held, and somehow that is beautifully enough. So when the soldier is not yet home, when the cure has not yet been found, when the loneliness hasn't yet faded, there is Joy. When the hurt hasn't yet seen its end, there is Joy.

When we wait and wait and all for nothing because the happiness we've asked for doesn't arrive, there is Joy. The Lord is come."

-lisa fleischaker.

(Amen, Amen, Amen).

discoveries.

"Beloved, you can bear me witness that, when you have had sad discoveries of your own heinous guilt, you have been deeply humbled. Sometimes, your good works have been a great evil to you, because you have prided yourself upon them, and so brought yourself to the edge of the precipice of presumption. But manifestations of your guilt, brought home to your conscience by God’s Spirit, have been of essential service to you, by teaching you not to be high-minded, but rather to fear, and to remember that your standing in grace is not of yourself, and: therefore you must not boast. That is another good reason, if there were no other, why we may bless God for showing us our own iniquity."

-c.h. spurgeon.

earnest. reverent. devoted.

"Revelation begins with God, the fountain of all truth. We must remember that the reception comes in two ways. It comes from earnest seeking. God gave men minds and it is often through our minds that he speaks to us. Certainly he does not grant his truth to the man who is too lazy to think. It comes from reverent waiting. God sends his truth to the man who not only thinks strenuously, but waits quietly in prayer and in devotion. But it must be remembered that prayer and devotion are not simply passive things. They are dedicated listening for the voice of God."

-william barclay.

flee.

"Up now, slight man! Flee for a little while your occupations; hide yourself for a time from your disturbing thoughts. Cast aside now your burdensome cares, and put away your toilsome business. Yield room for some little time to God, and rest for a little time in Him. Enter the inner chamber of your mind; shut out all thoughts save that of God and such as can aid you in seeking Him. Speak now, my whole heart! Speak now to God, saying, I seek Your face; Your face, Lord, will I seek."

-anselm.

reckless days.

"if time is money, then i'll spend it all for You.
i'll buy You flowers with my minutes.
i'll turn hours into gardens.

i'll be reckless with my days, building castles in Your Name."

-sleeping at last.

something else entirely.

"A strange thing happened then. The Speaker agreed with her that she had made a mistake, and she knew when he said the words that it was true, that his judgement was correct. And yet she felt strangely healed, as if simply speaking her mistake were enough to purge some of the pain of it. For the first time, then, she caught a glimpse of what the power of speaking might be. It wasn't a matter of confession, penance, and absolution, like the priests offered. It was something else entirely. Telling the story of who she was, and then realizing that she was no longer the same person. That she had made a mistake, and the mistake changed her, and now she would not make the mistake again because she had become someone else, someone less afraid, someone more compassionate.

If I'm not that frightened girl who heard and dared not go, who am I? But the water flowing through the grillwork had no answers. Maybe she couldn't know who she was today. Maybe it was enough to know that she was no longer who she was before."

-orson scott card, speaker for the dead.

"eyes to see."

"As I recall, Paul stood by and held the coats of the men who were stoning Stephen. Apparently Paul wasn't a believer at the time. In fact, I think he was regarded as the most terrible enemy of the church. And yet, he later repented, didn't he? So I suggest you think of me not as the enemy of God, but as an apostle who has not yet been stopped on the road to Damascus."

-ender wiggin, speaker for the dead.

falling and rising.

"if there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, i know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love."

-julian of norwich.

time and again.

"grace is doled out in generous, earth-shattering bits, just enough to overwhelm and humble us time and again."

-e vaughn do.

farsighted.

"but in the end such tired words shall rest.
the truth will reroute the narrow things they've said.
the marionette strings will lower and untie.
and out of the ashes love will be realized.

because God knows we've been naive.
and a bit nearsighted, to say the least."

-sleeping at last.

-----

"But as the heavens are high above the earth,
so are My ways high above your ways
and My plans above your plans.

For as the rain or snow drops from heaven
and returns not there,
but soaks the earth
and makes it bring forth vegetation,
yielding seed for sowing and bread for eating,

So is the word that issues from My mouth:
it does not come back to me unfulfilled,
but performs what I purpose,
achieves what I sent it to do.

Yea, you shall leave in joy and be led home
secure."

-isaiah 56.

rejoined.

"Heavenly Muse, Spirit who brooded on
the world and raised it shapely out of nothing,
touch my lips with fire and burn away
all dross of speech, so that i keep in mind
the truth and end to which my words now move
in hope. Keep my mind within that Mind
of which it is a part, whose wholeness is
the hope of sense in what i tell. And though
i go among the scatterings of that sense,
the members of its worldly body broken,
rule my sight by vision of the parts
rejoined. And in my exile's journey far
from home, be with me, so i may return."

-wendell berry

turning.

"and then I turned again to that other world I had taught myself to know, the world that is neither past nor to come, the present world where we are alive together and love keeps us."

-wendell berry.

not lost.

"Listen. There is a light that includes our darkness, a day that shines down even on the clouds. A man of faith believes that the man in the well is not lost. He does not believe this easily or without pain, but he believes it. His belief is a kind of knowledge beyond any way of knowing. He believes that the child in the womb is not lost, nor is the man whose work has come to nothing, nor is the old woman forsaken in a nursing home in California. He believes that those who make their bed in Hell are not lost, or those who dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, or the lame man at Bethesda Pool, or Lazarus in the grave, or those who pray "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani."
Have mercy."

-wendell berry

fully and freely.

"God does not coerce the love of His human creatures, not for Himself or for the world or for one another. To allow that love to exist fully and freely, He must allow it not to exist at all. His love is suffering. It is our freedom and His sorrow. To love the world as much even as I could love it would be suffering also, for I would fail. And yet all the good I know is in this, that a man might so love this world that it would break his heart."

-wendell berry.

answers.

"Maybe the reason God doesn't always just tell us what to do in the details is because in this, He's doing what He does in so many other areas of life: developing intimacy with us. He's forcing us to talk and listen. To even argue sometimes. But to know Him rather than just His plan.

That, after all, is what eternal life is all about: knowing God. Not knowing the answers."

-michael kelley.

it was then, it is now.

"it was then (when i least expected it) and it was there (where i felt most flawed and unworthy and lacking before God) that God proved to be true and real."

lisa velthouse, craving grace.

the sound that it makes...

"Not anything that we ever did or were, but something that was done for us by another. Not our own lives, but the life of one who died in our behalf and yet still is alive. This is our glory and our only hope. And the sound that it makes is the sound of excitement and gladness and laughter that floats through the night air from a great banquet."

-frederick buechner, the road to emmaus.