“Stop the glorification of busy.”
Category Archives: Quotes to Ponder
like a child
“It may be that we have lost our ability to hold a blazing coal,
move unfettered through time,
to walk on water,
because we have been taught that such things have to be earned;
we should deserve them;
we must be qualified.
We are suspicious of grace.
We are afraid of the very lavishness of the gift.
But a child rejoices in presents!”
-Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections of Faith and Art
daily life
“Let us remember that the life in which we ought to be interested is “daily” life. We can, each of us, only call the present time our own….Our Lord tells us to pray for today, and so he prevents us from tormenting ourselves about tomorrow. It is as if [God] were to say to us: “[It is I] who gives you this day [and] will also give you what you need for this day. [It is I] who makes the sun to rise. [It is I] who scatters the darkness of night and reveals to you the rays of the sun.”
-Gregory of Nyssa On the Lord’s Prayer
trying to hold on to control
IF
I hold on to choices of any kind,
just because they are my choice;
if I give any room to my private likes and dislikes,
then I know nothing of Calvary Love.
-Amy Carmichael, If
incarnation
“There is nothing so secular, that is cannot be sacred,
and that is one of the deepest messages of the
Incarnation.”
-Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections of Faith and Art
by love
“By love God may be gotten and holden, but by thought or understanding, never.”
-Author Unknown, The Cloud of Unknowing
the rhythm of our thoughts
“Do not forget Him!
Think of Him often:
adore Him ceaselessly:
live and die with Him.
That is the real business of a Christian; in a word, it is our profession. If we do not know it we must learn it.”
-Brother Lawrence
choosing joy
“For me it is amazing to experience daily the radical difference between cynicism and joy. Cynics seek darkness wherever they go. They point always to approaching dangers, impure motives, and hidden schemes. They call trust naive, care romantic, and forgiveness sentimental. They sneer at enthusiasm, ridicule spiritual fervor, and despise charismatic behavior. They consider themselves realists who see reality for what it truly is and who are not deceived by “escapist emotions.” But in belittling God’s joy, their darkness only calls forth more darkness.
People who have come to know the joy of God do not deny the darkness, but they choose not to live in it. They claim that the light that shines in the darkness can be trusted more than the darkness itself and that a little bit of light can dispel a lot of darkness. They point each other to flashes of light here and there, and remind each other that they reveal the hidden but real presence of God. They discover that there are people who heal each other’s wounds, forgive each other’s offenses, share their possessions, foster the spirit of community, celebrate the gifts they have received, and live in constant anticipation of the full manifestation of God’s glory.”
-Henri Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal
motherhood
“The deal is — Motherhood isn’t sainthood and we’re all a bunch of sinners here and don’t let anyone tell you any different — pushing something out of your womb doesn’t make you a better woman. Real Womanhood isn’t a function of becoming a great mother, but of being loved by your Great Father. Someone write that on a card with a bouquet of flowers. We all need that.
We all need that for the days that we hated our mothers — or hated being a mother.
When no room was big enough to find peace and no clock could tick fast enough to just get the day over with, and the truth is, facades only end up suffocating us all and it’s only telling the truth that lets you breathe –
and there really were days that felt pretty bad and looked pretty ugly.
And maybe that’s what it really was — maybe the days were pretty and ugly. Pretty…Ugly.
The ugly beautiful of reality and love and humanity and what it means to become real.
That was what was happening: the stacks of dishes and everests of laundry and the tantrums of toddlers and teenagers and tired mamas and all the scuffed up walls down the hall and through the heart, they were all wearing down the plastic of pride, wearing us down to the real wood of grace and the Cross. It really is okay.
To lose it and be found, to be rubbed the wrong way to be come the rightest way, to let all the hard times rub you down to real.”
changing ourselves
“We have real difficulty here because everyone thinks of changing the world, but where, oh where, are those who think of changing themselves? People may genuinely want to be good, but seldom are they prepared to do what it takes to produce the inward life of goodness that can form the soul. Personal formation into the likeness of Christ is arduous and lifelong.”
-Richard Foster
peacocks for pilgrims 