2 quotes that sum up 2009 for me

I've learned to love my family more and how to take deep breaths on the journey of life.

"Only love has eyes. To understand the world of things, you need science and suspicion and the method of doubt; accept nothing until proved. Every idea is guilty until proved innocent. But to know people, you need the opposite method: trust, love, openness. Persons are innocent until proved guilty. You cannot bear them unless that is your attitude. Suspicion never reaches the other's heart."
~Dr. Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Human Life

"There are many people who reach their conclusions about life like schoolboys: they cheat their master by copying the answer out of a book without having worked the sum out for themselves."
~ SØREN KIERKEGAARD, The Journals

Perseverance

Sometimes I wonder how it is that I can still struggle with the same sins but feel as though I have a sincere faith in Christ. Why is it that we struggle so much?

I found a great passage in Sam Storms book Signs of the Spirit that points to a great theme of Christianity: perseverance.

"There is hardly anything more explicit in the teachings of Jesus himself than the rules by which we are to judge the sincerity of someone's profession o faith. we must judge the nature of the tree by the quality of its fruit. But if the fruit of saving virtue is subject to being counterfeited, what good is this as a rule for discerning true from false? The answer is found not in the mere presence of what appears to be fruit, but in its perseverance. If the fruit shows itself not merely once, no matter how fervently and sweetly, but endures and matures over time and through trial, we can more solidly judge whether they are be truly of God (although even then our judgement is still fallible).

I quote Same Storms not because I'm particular interested in judging (or meditating) on whether others are sincere in their faith, but whether I am.

Paul writing in his 1st letter to the Corinthians:

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, [2] lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified (ch. 9).

Father, give me the strength to run the race with perseverance. Give me endurance, Father. In Jesus name, Amen.

How long can you go without praying?

Gary A. Haugen does a wonderful job of working up to the following statement and question in his book, Just Courage. Haugen explains how taking the "safe" route will not satisfy our "desire for ...significant and meaningful" experiences on this earth and now "we're created by God for adventure."

"Mother Teresa said that she couldn’t imagine doing her work for more than thirty minutes without prayer. Do you and I have work that we can’t imagine doing for thirty minutes without prayer?"

You can read the first chapter here: http://www.ivpress.com/title/exc/3494-1.pdf

This question is near the end...and it is really making me think about my priorities.

Signs of the Spirit

Why am I not stirred more to know God?

Sam Storms writes:

If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart....

If our thesis is correct, and true spirituality lies in the experience, enjoyment, and expression of holy affections, it is to our shame that we are no more affected with the great truths of Scripture than we are. This is especially the case when we consider how profoundly moved and affected people are by world things that have little if anything to do with God and the revelation of himself in the face of Jesus Christ.

Oh, how easily I am distracted and blind to the greatness of the gospel.

Jonathon Edwards asks:

But is there anything which Christians can find in heaven or earth, so worthy to be the objects of their admiration and love, their earnest and longing desires, their hope, and their rejoicing, and their fervent zeal, as those things that are held forth to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ?

....All the virtues of the Lamb of God, his humility, patience, meekness, submission, obedience, love and compassion, are exhibited to our view, in a manner the most tending to move our affections, of any that can be imagined; as they all had their greatest trial, and their highest exercise, and so their brightest manifestation, when he was in the most affecting circumstances; even when he was under his last sufferings, those unutterable and unparalled sufferings he endured, from his tender love and pity to us."

Quotes are from Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections by Sam Storms.

blind to my own blindness

John Calvin’s Institutes, begins with this sentence:

“Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” What we may need reminding of in our day is not that the knowledge of God is difficult to comprehend and to embrace—that’s more or less obvious—but that the knowledge of ourselves is just as difficult to comprehend and to embrace. Indeed, it may be more difficult, first, because a true knowledge of ourselves assumes a true knowledge of God, and, second, because we tend to think we do know ourselves, when, in fact, the depths or our condition are beyond our comprehension without the help of God (emphasis mine).

Blind. I'm utterly blind without God's grace...

Suffering & Perspective

God grants us perspective though suffering.

Jack Crabtree explains

Suffering is intended by God to lead to my resolving my sorrow and disappointment into wisdom and true perspective. I am not so likely to resolve sorrow and disappointment into wisdom and true perspective if and when I do not allow myself to feel it.

Lord, thank you for the ability to feel. Grant me the the strength to move from feeling to conviction through the beautiful experiences you lead me through.

Real Women Worry Not

Candance Parker's perspective on being a successful woman basketball player reminds me of Phyllis Schlafly's attitude about how real women work hard to perfect their talents and worry not about how they measure up against men.

Excerpts from Time Magazine interview with Candance Parker, WNBA MVP:

Growing up playing basketball, did you ever have to deal with negative or sexist comments? Minnesa Khan, JAMAICA, N.Y.

I never really had to. When I would go to the park, maybe initially they would be like, She's a girl, she can't play. But then the next time, they were picking me first for their team. Let your actions speak for themselves. Don't worry about what everybody else is saying. Just concentrate on playing basketball and embrace being a woman and being in sports.

Do you think they should create coed-league sports on a professional level? Luke Denker, BELTON, MO.

I don't think it's necessary. I think it's neat that women play our game. Obviously, the strength of men--I really don't feel like we could play in a professional league with them. I think it's great that young girls have the WNBA to look up to now.

How are you doing with your new daughter? Has your coach at Tennessee, Pat Summitt, started recruiting her yet? Brenda Goodman JOHNSON CITY, TENN.

When I first told Coach Summitt that I was pregnant, she was like, Where can we send the papers? I had to remind her that my husband [Minnesota Timberwolves forward Shelden Williams] went to Duke, so he's pushing for her to go there. But I'm doing great. My baby is the joy in my life. Obviously, I'm suffering from lack of sleep, but it truly is a blessing to be a mother.

Quotes that Made Me Think Recently

"We know each other by our stories." - Doug Merkey, Churches for Life

Someone once said that your humility can be measured by how quickly you admit you are wrong. -Leslie Ludy, Noble Beauty

"Be effective where you are at. Endure. Persevere." ~ co-worker Deb

"You might want to leave legacy, but you got think about what God's plan is for your life, not your plan for your life." - HS

"It goes back to sin." ~ co-worker Deb

"Your friends determine the direction and quality of your life." -Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast "Effective Communication"

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations which grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." -Thomas Jefferson

Quotes that Made Me Think In March

"Lies can be as simple as you want. Truth is complicated" -Eric, my co-worker and friend

"I like type A personalities. If there the world were only full of type B personalities, where would the world be?" -my friend Beth (Type B personality who's humble and her love for people transcends personality quirks)

"Marriages are team efforts." - Gary North

"The greatest threat to you leading a fulfilled life is a misguided pursuit of happiness that blinds you to the possibility of a more meaningful Hero's Journey"- from the Acton Institute's Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (A Cautionary Tale)

"Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth. He will not let your foot slip--he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." (Ps 121:1-3)

"Something's not right" - my co-worker Deb

"I want to love people for who they are" - my friend Beth

"Who you marry will be the most important decision you will every make. It's great that you still get to make that decision." -June Silber

"Christ stands between us, and we can only get in touch with our neighbors is through him that is why intercession is the most promising way to reach our neighbors, and corporate prayer offers in the name of Christ, the purest form of fellowship. -Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

"We cannot rightly acknowledge the gifts of God unless we acknowledge the mediator for who sake alone they are given to us. -Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

The Invisible

"Try, moreover, to turn your heart from the love of things visible and bring yourself to things invisible. For they who follow their own evil passions stain their consciences and lose the grace of God." Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ

All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." Ecclesiastes 1:8

We try so hard to substitute the invisible with the visible, but the more we seek to satisfy our longings with those things close at hand, the less our senses desire that which will truly fill us to the full.

Quotes that Made Me Think This Week - Mar. 8-14

"A man is one whose body has been trained to be the ready servant of his mind; whose passions are trained to be the servants of his will; who enjoys the beautiful, loves truth, hates wrong, loves to do good, and respects others as himself." - Author Unknown

"Every person is an artist. the whole of life is a creative act. The warp and woof of each life is equivalent to the artist's paint or the musician's sounds." - Ranald McCaulay and Jerram Barrs, Being Human

"I don't want to go one more day without at your all consuming passion inside of me. I don't want to spend the rest of my life thinking, 'What if I had given everything.' " -Matthew West's song, The Motions

"Controlling people are generally the most insecure, which is why they try to control other people." - Pastor Doug (paraphrase, but it's close.)

"We are in error if we believe that just because there's a need, we're the one to fill it." - Andi Ashworth, Real Love for Real Life

Quotes that Made Me Think This Week: Mar 1-7

He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to obtain what he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot

The true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good. -Ann Landers

Live one rank lower than your pay grade. -a lieutenant colonel & con law professor @ West Point

You can only exhale what you inhale. Do you want to exhale Jesus in your life? Then inhale Jesus constantly. -Doug Merkey

Conversation today:

Ruth: "It's humbling for people to grow older." [in reference to my 84 year-old boss falling and breaking her hip]

Mary (aid to my boss's sister-in-law who is 87 & still volunteering part-time): "The key is to accept it. What's the alternative? Dying young."