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October 24 On Thinking Big Enough“If you’re working on a problem you can solve in your own lifetime, you’re not thinking big enough.”
-- Kansan Wes Jackson, quoted Oct 21, 2009 on NPR December 08 Save or Savor?"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the
world and a desire to savor the world. That makes it hard to plan the
day." -- ee cummings (with hat tip to James Ayers for the quote) August 24 Prevailing Intelligence"What was the purpose of his pilgrimage? To make a new intelligence prevail." -- Wallace Stevens
March 10 Ushering in the future"At the intersections of each other's stories the future is born." -- Andre Codrescu, Romanian author, Louisiana State University (hat tip to Brian Lennstrom) February 23 The Kingdom always lies beyond us"It helps now and then,
to step back and take the long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection,
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future Promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and do it very well.
It may be incomplete, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.
We are Prophets of a future not our own."
-- Archbishop Oscar Romero, El Salvador February 22 No Effort is Without Error and Shortcoming"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, great devotions; … who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
--Teddy Roosevelt January 11 These people are revolutionaries"There is a new breed of Christ-follower in America today. These are
people who are more interested in being the Church than in going to church. They
are more eager to produce fruit for the kingdom of God than to become
comfortable in the Christian subculture. They are focused on the seven spiritual
passions that facilitate their growth as genuine people of God and citizens of
the kingdom. These people are Revolutionaries." -- "Revolution" by George Barna November 04 Brains light up with cooperation"Scientists have discovered that the
small, brave act of cooperating with another person,of choosing trust
over cynicism, generosity over selfishness, makes the breain light up
with quiet joy." -- Natalie Angier, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter, describing a recent study of the effects of behavior on brain chemistry August 26 Love amidst realities of our differences“The ultimate goal is not just to get along with each other [as Christians],
but to strengthen the mission of God to the world. Our witness to the power
of the gospel of Jesus Christ must flow through our love for one another.
In a world where people kill each other over differences, we are called to
love friends and enemies midst the realities of our differences.” -- Rev Gary Demarest August 24 Suddenly a man alone"I
think to myself, I'm 36 years old and rotting in front of a television
set... I snap off the tube, and all those emotions that have been
sluicing into my veins, all the opinions and ideas that I have mistaken
for my own, zip dizzily up into the atmosphere, and I am suddenly a man
alone on a fold-out couch in the empty darkness of an add-on room."
-- Poe Ballantine,
"501 Minutes to Christ" April 04 Every Day Less Reason Not to Give Ourselves Away"No, no, there is no going back. Less and less you are that possibility you were. More and more you have become those lives and deaths that you have belonged to. You have become a sort of grave containing much that was and is no more in time, beloved then, now, and always. And so you have become a sort of tree standing over a grave. Now more than ever you can be generous toward each day that comes, young, to disappear forever, and yet remain unaging in the mind. Every day you have less reason not to give yourself away. --Wendell Berry, A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997, poem #1 1993 December 14 Visionaries: Critics of the present"Vision City: How is this a vision city? People here have dreamed of better ways to live in their own lifetimes and in the future. The Pacific Northwest has long attracted visionaries, critics of the present who invent a better future. Their visions have called for social, political, religious and economic change, and they have dared to experiment with the status quo and to risk failure. Visionaries have imagined new ways for people to live and work together...They have imagined and reimagined our world, using words, art and action." -- From a display at the Seattle Museum of History and Industry on Seattle's history December 13 Energy organizes the system"Energy flowing through a system organizes it. That's a key physics principle. Our patterns and organizations are based on old energy flows." -- David Dobler, Executive Presbyter, Yukon Presbytery December 11 GeniusEveryone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together. -- G.C. Lichtenberg Before and After PicturesYesterday's "After" picture is today's "Before" picture. -- David Hackett, 12/12/04 December 08 Language of human dignity and hopeReligion alone seems to speak the language of human dignity and hope. -- Jonathan Sacks, Christian Science Monitor, 12/2/04 December 02 I want a name when I lose"They got a name for the winners in the world I want a name when I lose. They call Alabama the crimson tide call me deacon blues." -- Steely Dan |
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