Finishing

Beginning well is a momentary thing; finishing well is a lifelong thing.   

                                                                                -Ravi Zacharias

Friendship Bumps

When a friend makes a mistake, the friend remains a friend, and the mistake remains a mistake.

                                                                            -Shimon Perez

To See

The greatest thing a human ever does in the world is to see something and tell others what he saw in a plain way. Hundreds can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly and tell others clearly is poetry, prophesy and religion all in one.

                                                                              -John Ruskin

In the Crisis

So if God should place me in serious perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in places of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength? No fear that His resources will prove unequal to the emergency! And His resources are mine, for He is mine, and is with me and dwells in me.

                                                                        -Hudson Taylor

What is the Question?

?

The greatest cause of problems and conflict in companies, churches and families often isn't disagreement over answers to basic questions--but a lack of agreement about what the real questions are.

                         -Sweeten, Ping, Clippard, Listening for Heaven's Sake

Responses

There are five basic responses to unpleasant feelings:

“fight it out”

“wait it out”

“check out”

“freak out”

“work it out”

(from Conflict, by Equipping Ministries)

Crooked Lines

Isn't it a consolation to know that life is not a straight line? Many of us wish and have been told that it should be, but I haven't met a life yet that's a straight line to God. And I have even met Mother Teresa! It's always getting the point and missing the point. It's God entering our lives and then fighting it, avoiding it, running from it. There is the moment of divine communion or intimacy, and then the pullback that says, "That's too good to be true. I must be making it up." Fortunately, God works with all of it, and that's called mercy or steadfast love.

                                                                    -Richard Rohr, Things Hidden

Anger

Anyone can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person at the right time, and for the right purpose and in the right way - that is not within everyone’s power and that is not easy

                                  Aristotle

Over-explained

Overexplanation separates us from astonishment.

                                                                    -Eugene Ionesco

Work Frustration

If you are frustrated with your work, or you feel like you're failing at what you do, perhaps you need to see your work or your career from an entirely new perspective. Rather than doing your work your way with the results you want, think of doing God's work God's way with the results God wants.

                                                                           -Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz
                                                                            Real Life Has No Expiration Date

Prayer

 

Grant, we beseech Thee, Merciful Lord, help and deliverance unto us, who are visited with grievous sickness and mortality. Sanctify to us this our sore distress, and prosper with Thy continual blessing those who labor to devise for mankind protection against disease and pain through Him Who both healed and hallowed pain, Thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

                                                           -The Alter Service Book of the American Lutheran Church,
                                                              Wartburg Press, 1947, page 255
                                                               (Special Intercessions: "During an Epidemic")
                                                               Painting="Sick Husband" by Vassily Maximov, 1881

Stories

Is the story of God in my life bigger than my weaknesses and inabilities?

Is the story of God in my life more than my sins?

Is the story of God in my life more than my failures? 

Is the story of God in my life bigger than the story of others’ sins against me?

Is the story of God in my life greater than the story of my divorce?

Is the story of God in my life more fantastic than my identity?

Is the story of God in my life more than my gender identity? My sexual orientation?

Is the story of God the story of my life? Or am I allowing the other stories to climb up and be bigger and greater and more?

Jesus said in John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (NASB)

Pages

Those are just pages. There is a bigger story.

                                                                                                  -Chris Stefanick (I Am, 2018)

Love Learning

Apart from love, the things most worth knowing can never be learned.

                                                        Mounce, et al. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, on John 14:21

Work Family Balance

Work can convince you that you are working hard for your family and friends while you are being seduced through ambition to neglect them.

                                                                    -Katherine Alsdorf and Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor