All appears to change when we change.
Henri Amiel
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
"Nine Principles Of Effective Leadership"
He who would learn to command well must first of all learn to obey.
Greek Saying
The first and greatest imperative of command is to be present in person. Those who impose risk must b seen to share it... It is the spectacle of heroism, or its immediate report, that fires the blood.
John Keegen
The commander must try, above all, to establish personal and comradely contact with his men, but without giving away an inch of his authority.
Erwin Rommel
Never speak ill of a subordinate except to his face.
Henry H. Adams
A bold general may be lucky, but no general can be lucky unless he is bold.
Archibald Percival Wavell
The dissimulation of the general consists of the important art of hiding his thoughts. He should be constantly on the stage and should appear most tranquil when he is most occupied, for the whole army speculates on his looks, on his gestures, and on his mood.
Fredrick II
A commander should have a profound understanding of human nature, the knack of smoothing out troubles, the power of winning affection while communicating energy, and the capacity for ruthless determination where require by circumstances. He needs to generate an electrifying current, and to keep a cool head in applying it.
Capt. Sir Basil Liddell Hart
I don't do much, except think a lot, scold a little, pat a man on the back now and then, and try to keep a perspective.
Douglas MacArthur
A man knew that he had met the Chief of Staff's expectations when he received increased responsibility and the rank that went with it.
Stephen E. Ambrose
Greek Saying
The first and greatest imperative of command is to be present in person. Those who impose risk must b seen to share it... It is the spectacle of heroism, or its immediate report, that fires the blood.
John Keegen
The commander must try, above all, to establish personal and comradely contact with his men, but without giving away an inch of his authority.
Erwin Rommel
Never speak ill of a subordinate except to his face.
Henry H. Adams
A bold general may be lucky, but no general can be lucky unless he is bold.
Archibald Percival Wavell
The dissimulation of the general consists of the important art of hiding his thoughts. He should be constantly on the stage and should appear most tranquil when he is most occupied, for the whole army speculates on his looks, on his gestures, and on his mood.
Fredrick II
A commander should have a profound understanding of human nature, the knack of smoothing out troubles, the power of winning affection while communicating energy, and the capacity for ruthless determination where require by circumstances. He needs to generate an electrifying current, and to keep a cool head in applying it.
Capt. Sir Basil Liddell Hart
I don't do much, except think a lot, scold a little, pat a man on the back now and then, and try to keep a perspective.
Douglas MacArthur
A man knew that he had met the Chief of Staff's expectations when he received increased responsibility and the rank that went with it.
Stephen E. Ambrose
"Fiscally Conservative?"
Traditional conservation has not been, and proper conservatism cannot be, merely a defense of industrialism and individualist "free-market" economics. Conservatism is about the cultivation and conservation of certain values, or it is nothing.
George F. Will
George F. Will
"Wiser Today"
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
"Provide Challenges. Be Immovable"
Growing up is a dialectical process that requires things that one can push against in order to become stronger. It takes limited war against worthy opponents; a child matures by testing himself against limits set by loving adults.
Author Unknown
Author Unknown
"Grow Or Pay"
There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, which demanded that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.
Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
"A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult" Proverbs 12:16
There is often more bravery in containing oneself and passing by: in order to spare oneself for a worthier enemy.
Fredrich Nietzsche
Fredrich Nietzsche
"Precious In The Sight Of The Lord"
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.
Cherokee Proverb
Cherokee Proverb
"An 'Easy' And 'Light' Crucixion Of The Flesh?"
The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says `Give me All. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked - the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.'
Both harder and easier than what we are all trying to do. You have noticed, I expect, that Christ Himself sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard, sometimes as very easy. He says, 'Take up your Cross'- in other words, it is like going to be beaten to death in a concentration camp. Next minute he says, 'My yoke is easy and my burden light.' He means both. And one can just see why both are true.
Teachers will tell you that the laziest boy in the class is the one who works hardest in the end. They mean this. If you give two boys, say, a proposition in geometry to do, the one who is prepared to take trouble will try to understand it. The lazy boy will try to learn it by heart because, for the moment, that needs less effort. But six months later, when they are preparing for an exam, that lazy boy is doing hours and hours of miserable drudgery over things the other boy understands, and positively enjoys, in a few minutes. Laziness means more work in the long run. Or look at it this way. In a battle, or in mountain climbing, there is often one thing which it takes a lot of pluck to do; but it is also, in the long run, the safest things to do. If you funk it, you will find yourself, hours later, in far worse danger. The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing.
C.S.Lewis
Both harder and easier than what we are all trying to do. You have noticed, I expect, that Christ Himself sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard, sometimes as very easy. He says, 'Take up your Cross'- in other words, it is like going to be beaten to death in a concentration camp. Next minute he says, 'My yoke is easy and my burden light.' He means both. And one can just see why both are true.
Teachers will tell you that the laziest boy in the class is the one who works hardest in the end. They mean this. If you give two boys, say, a proposition in geometry to do, the one who is prepared to take trouble will try to understand it. The lazy boy will try to learn it by heart because, for the moment, that needs less effort. But six months later, when they are preparing for an exam, that lazy boy is doing hours and hours of miserable drudgery over things the other boy understands, and positively enjoys, in a few minutes. Laziness means more work in the long run. Or look at it this way. In a battle, or in mountain climbing, there is often one thing which it takes a lot of pluck to do; but it is also, in the long run, the safest things to do. If you funk it, you will find yourself, hours later, in far worse danger. The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing.
C.S.Lewis
"Hold Fast. And Progress."
There can be change without progress, but not progress without change.
Anonymous
A capacity to change is indispensable. Equally indispensable is the capacity to hold fast to what is good.
John Foster Duilles
Anonymous
A capacity to change is indispensable. Equally indispensable is the capacity to hold fast to what is good.
John Foster Duilles
"Competition:For Little League, But Not For The Body Of Christ"
...how little the proponents of the ideal of competition have to say about...community, compassion, and mutual help. But what the ideal of competition most flagrantly and disastrously excludes is affection.
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry
"Good Leadership Trumps Popularity"
One good measure of ego-strength and inner confidence is the degree to which a person can risk unpopularity when the occasion demands.
Norman F. Dixon
Norman F. Dixon
"Trendy Morals"
I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.
Lillian Hellman
Lillian Hellman
"True Nobility"
There is nothing noble in being superior to someone else. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.
"Because Every Word And Action Is A Seed, And Seeds Multiply"
Think Globally, But Act Locally.
Rene Dubos
Rene Dubos
"Momentous Motherhood"
Making the decision to have a child - It's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”
Elizabeth Stone
Elizabeth Stone
"Faith Makes All The Difference"
Faith sees the invisible, expects the impossible, receives the incredible.
Author Unknown
Author Unknown
Muscular Steadfastness
Peter is quite right that the “fall from your own steadfastness” is abetted by bad theology, “the error of wicked men.” Most of these men are not straight-up “wicked,” but the germ of error in their theology is; a ship that begins off course by 1 degree will be many miles wide of the mark by the end.
What is the “error”? It is a slightly skewed view of grace that encourages passivity and discourages a striving for greater faith, since all striving—or any muscular “steadfastness”—is suspected of being works righteousness. Never mind that God says to “grow in grace” (2 Peter 3:18).
There is a “holding on” that must be part of the Christian’s everyday life (Hebrews 3:6,14). “Steadfastness” is not the staunch maintaining of a theological position but something much more personal and difficult: It is fighting for your very life, using every weapon listed in Ephesians 6. These articles of armor were not meant to be admired on a shelf but scuffed up in battle.
I wish I could say the battles involved noble campaigns against Gnosticism and Liberalism, but they are more typically wrestlings with coveting your neighbor’s talents or his new car.
Andree Seu
What is the “error”? It is a slightly skewed view of grace that encourages passivity and discourages a striving for greater faith, since all striving—or any muscular “steadfastness”—is suspected of being works righteousness. Never mind that God says to “grow in grace” (2 Peter 3:18).
There is a “holding on” that must be part of the Christian’s everyday life (Hebrews 3:6,14). “Steadfastness” is not the staunch maintaining of a theological position but something much more personal and difficult: It is fighting for your very life, using every weapon listed in Ephesians 6. These articles of armor were not meant to be admired on a shelf but scuffed up in battle.
I wish I could say the battles involved noble campaigns against Gnosticism and Liberalism, but they are more typically wrestlings with coveting your neighbor’s talents or his new car.
Andree Seu
"Strap On Your Boots"
...the "war" that I have in mind when I speak of a "wartime mind-set" or a "wartime lifestyle" is not being fought along geographical lines. It is being fought first along the line between good and evil in every human heart, especially the hearts of Christians where Christ has staked his claim, and where he means to be totally triumphant. The "war" is being fought along the line between sin and righteousness in every family. It is being fought along the line between truth and falsehood in every school . . . between justice and injustice in every legislature . . . between integrity and corruption in every office . . . between love and hate in every ethnic group . . . between pride and humility in every sport . . . between the beautiful and the ugly in every art . . . between right doctrine and wrong doctrine in every church . . . and between sloth and diligence between coffee breaks. It is not a waste to fight the battle for truth and faith and love on any of these fronts.
John Piper
John Piper
"Liberty And Justice For All"
...I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free...bind up the nation's wounds; ...care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - ...do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
"Through Christ Who Strengthens Me"
...in one sense, the road back to God is a road of moral effort, of trying harder and harder. But in another sense it is not trying that is ever going to bring us home. All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say, 'You must do this. I can't'...To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice.
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
"Self-Improvement"
Never underestimate your power to change yourself; never overestimate your power to change others.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
"Ethical Midgets"
We have too many men of science, too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom , power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical midgets. We know more about war than we know of peace, more about killing than we know about living.
Omar N. Bradley
Omar N. Bradley
"Good Old Soul-Food"
...newness is no virtue and oldness is no vice. Truth and beauty and goodness are not determined by when they exist. Nothing is inferior for being old, and nothing is valuable for being modern. This has freed me from the tyranny of novelty and opened for me the wisdom of the ages. To this day I get most of my soul-food from centuries ago.
John Piper
John Piper
"Need To Readjust Your Load?"
Burdens will press less heavily upon those who bear them skillfully.
Seneca The Younger
Seneca The Younger
"Redeem It"
Dost thou love Life? Then do not squander Time; for that's the Stuff Life is made of.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
"In Your Presence There Is Fullness Of Joy"
This is love. God's love for us is God's doing what He must do, at great cost to Himself, so that we might have the pleasure of seeing and savoring Him forever.
John Piper
John Piper
"The Incarnation"
No woman ever conceived a child, no mare a foal, without Him. But once, and for a special purpose, He dispensed with that long line which is His instrument: once His life-giving finger touched a woman without passing through the ages of interlocked events. Once the great glove of Nature was taken off His hand. His naked hand touched her. There was of course a unique reason for it. That time He was creating not simply a man but the Man who was to be Himself: was creating Man anew: was beginning, at this divine and human point, the New Creation of all things. The whole soiled and weary universe quivered at this direct injection of essential life--direct, uncontaminated, not drained through all the crowded history of Nature.
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
"Truly Brave"
The truly brave are soft of heart and eyes, and feel for what their duty bids them do.
Lord Byron
Lord Byron
"The Only Shoulders"
I read the statement “Abraham believed God” (Galatians 3:6). It jumped out at me with all its loaded implications: “Abraham believed God”—and not man. “Abraham believed God”—and not what well-meaning pastors or little old ladies told him about God. “Abraham believed God”—knowing that different preachers and professors teach opposing and contradictory things, and theologies are not infallible, but go awry. “Abraham believed God”—and that’s all you and I can do, at the end of the day.
I can just imagine what Martin Luther’s counselor told him in his office when the monk of tender conscience came to him with a troubled mind: “Martin, pray that God will forgive your arrogance and presumption. Who do you think you are, that you can see something that has escaped the divines of the centuries, and many a better scholar than you? Martin, don’t you know: We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.”
I wonder if the monk replied: Dear Abbot, the Word of God must always stand above the word of man. I cannot judge his word; it judges me. The only shoulders I can stand on are Jesus’, Peter’s, and Paul’s.
Andree Seu
I can just imagine what Martin Luther’s counselor told him in his office when the monk of tender conscience came to him with a troubled mind: “Martin, pray that God will forgive your arrogance and presumption. Who do you think you are, that you can see something that has escaped the divines of the centuries, and many a better scholar than you? Martin, don’t you know: We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.”
I wonder if the monk replied: Dear Abbot, the Word of God must always stand above the word of man. I cannot judge his word; it judges me. The only shoulders I can stand on are Jesus’, Peter’s, and Paul’s.
Andree Seu
"Psalm 96 ...All The Trees of The Forest Will Sing for Joy Before The LORD, For He Is Coming"
Ah, dear nature, the mere remembrance, after a short forgetfulness, of the pine woods! I come to it as a hungry man to a crust of bread...
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
"Progressive Or Pigheaded"
We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. We have all seen this when doing arithmetic. When I have started a sum the wrong way, the sooner I admit this and go back and start again, the faster I shall get on. There is nothing progressive about being pig-headed and refusing to admit a mistake. And I think if you look at the present state of the world, it is pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistakes. We are on the wrong road. And if that is so, we must go back. Going back is the quickest way on.
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
"Truth Is True"
Christian faith is not true because it works; it works because it is true. It is not true because we experience it; we experience it—deeply and gloriously—because it is true. It is not simply ‘true for us’; it is true for any who seek in order to find, because truth is true even if nobody believes it and falsehood is false even if everyone believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity—it is simply true and that is the end of it.
Os Guinness
Os Guinness
"I Am My Brother And My Brother Is Me"
The brotherhood of men would be an empty dream without the fatherhood of God.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
(Title:Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Abraham Joshua Heschel
(Title:Ralph Waldo Emerson)
"Courageous Trepidation"
The brave man is the man who faces or fears the right thing for the right purpose in the right manner at the right moment.
Aristotle
Aristotle
"Get 'Er Done"
Sooner begun, sooner done...The first and last steps are usually the hardest.
Saying (English)
Saying (English)
"The Goodness Of God's Severity"
The severity of God’s dealing as He trained His people in the principles of holiness becomes intelligible when we see what is at stake. It was nothing less than the salvation of the world. The chosen people was the precious casket in which was to be placed a priceless jewel: the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of men. Against this people Satan directed his fiercest attacks, and to the preservation of this people in righteousness God directed His fiercest defense.
John W. Wenham, The Goodness of God, p. 146.
John W. Wenham, The Goodness of God, p. 146.
"The Common Cause"
When someone opposes me, he arouses my attention, not my anger. I go to meet a man who contradicts me, who instructs me. The cause of truth should be the common cause for both.
Montaigne
Montaigne
"The Too Late Lie"
A man sits on the dock with head in hands, wailing for the ships that have sailed—as he is missing the ship that is sailing. This is a story of my life, of living in regret over past losses, even as I am losing the present moment’s possibilities.
In my 20s I thought all was lost. I chose despair and plunged headlong into a funk—and more disaster. In my 30s, when I saw what I had done, I plunged into yet more despair rather than learn my lesson. I lamented that I had been wrong in my 20s to think it was too late then—but that surely it was really too late now! So I dug into a costly depression. Despair over former fatal choices was itself the fatal choice that I continued to make. It is shameful to tell you all this. But at my age, I am grateful to serve as even a bad example if it will help someone.
Satan, with sweet rationalizations, tempts us to sin. And then, when we have followed his counsel, he switches sides to be the Accuser. It is hard to see this for what it is—the last lie in his quiver—because it comes with a semblance of righteousness: “I have sinned so badly that I have no right to joy again.” This is counterfeit repentance. Scripture tells us how to know a false repentance from a true one. The former kills, but the latter brings good things into your life:
“I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:9-10).
I am a watchman calling out from the milestone of 58 years, to you coming up behind me at 28 and 38 and 48. And this is what I cry: Never say it’s “too late,” and it’s “no use,” no matter what you have done—and I do not doubt you have done plenty. The command to repent and believe is not issued to pretty good people but to the ungodly. If the gospel is not good for your present estate it’s not good for anything. Christ still stands at the door and knocks. The words “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37) are still true. “Do not fear; only believe” (Mark 5:36) is still addressed to you. You are not the one person in history that God’s grace is not going to work for. To refuse to believe in His love and to put your hope in Him—“Today, while it is still today” (Hebrews 3:13)—is to miss the boat that’s docked and waiting.
Andree Seu
In my 20s I thought all was lost. I chose despair and plunged headlong into a funk—and more disaster. In my 30s, when I saw what I had done, I plunged into yet more despair rather than learn my lesson. I lamented that I had been wrong in my 20s to think it was too late then—but that surely it was really too late now! So I dug into a costly depression. Despair over former fatal choices was itself the fatal choice that I continued to make. It is shameful to tell you all this. But at my age, I am grateful to serve as even a bad example if it will help someone.
Satan, with sweet rationalizations, tempts us to sin. And then, when we have followed his counsel, he switches sides to be the Accuser. It is hard to see this for what it is—the last lie in his quiver—because it comes with a semblance of righteousness: “I have sinned so badly that I have no right to joy again.” This is counterfeit repentance. Scripture tells us how to know a false repentance from a true one. The former kills, but the latter brings good things into your life:
“I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:9-10).
I am a watchman calling out from the milestone of 58 years, to you coming up behind me at 28 and 38 and 48. And this is what I cry: Never say it’s “too late,” and it’s “no use,” no matter what you have done—and I do not doubt you have done plenty. The command to repent and believe is not issued to pretty good people but to the ungodly. If the gospel is not good for your present estate it’s not good for anything. Christ still stands at the door and knocks. The words “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37) are still true. “Do not fear; only believe” (Mark 5:36) is still addressed to you. You are not the one person in history that God’s grace is not going to work for. To refuse to believe in His love and to put your hope in Him—“Today, while it is still today” (Hebrews 3:13)—is to miss the boat that’s docked and waiting.
Andree Seu
"Knowledge Is A Vehicle , Not A Badge"
Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered...As the author of the Theologia Germanica says, we may come to love knowledge– our knowing– more than the thing known: to delight not in the exercise of our talents but in the fact that they are ours, or even in the reputation they bring us. Every success in the scholar’s life increases this danger. If it [arrogance] becomes irresistible, he must give up his scholarly work. The time for plucking out the right eye has arrived.
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
"Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:15).
Do you have a situation that people don’t expect anything good to come out of? A marriage that people don’t think can work? A child that people say is impossible? A problem that makes people write you off? Cheer up. That’s when it gets interesting for God. He is in the business of defying popular expectation, the better to glorify Himself in you.
A counselor (I’m sorry to say that it was even a Christian counselor) once said that a woman who is a victim of marital infidelity will suffer depression as a result of it for a period of time that is approximately equal to the duration of the adultery. It was proved by statistics. A woman I know decided to go with the statistics rather than the Word of God, and she rose no higher than the counselor’s expectations.
At about the same time, there was another woman whose husband died. Some of her well-meaning friends told her to expect a series of fixed psychological stages of grief, including anger at God. This woman instead chose to pick up the Bible and simply believe God’s promises. God honored her faith and defied expectations.
Sometimes we Christians don’t expect enough from God. Let us pray bold prayers, outlandish prayers, because God wants to do exceedingly abundantly more than all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20)—and certainly more than unbelievers are expecting.
Andree Seu
A counselor (I’m sorry to say that it was even a Christian counselor) once said that a woman who is a victim of marital infidelity will suffer depression as a result of it for a period of time that is approximately equal to the duration of the adultery. It was proved by statistics. A woman I know decided to go with the statistics rather than the Word of God, and she rose no higher than the counselor’s expectations.
At about the same time, there was another woman whose husband died. Some of her well-meaning friends told her to expect a series of fixed psychological stages of grief, including anger at God. This woman instead chose to pick up the Bible and simply believe God’s promises. God honored her faith and defied expectations.
Sometimes we Christians don’t expect enough from God. Let us pray bold prayers, outlandish prayers, because God wants to do exceedingly abundantly more than all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20)—and certainly more than unbelievers are expecting.
Andree Seu
"Be Not Conformed"
To be out of harmony with one's surroundings is of course a misfortune, but it is not always a misfortune to be avoided at all costs. Where environment is stupid, or prejudiced or cruel, it is a sign of merit to be out of harmony with it.
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
"And The Spiritual Application? ..."
To keep people buying, you need first to make them dissatisfied with what they have...Advertising is nothing more than a technique to keep people in a state of perpetual dissatisfaction with what they possess and in a permanent state of itchy acquisitiveness.
Felix Greene
Felix Greene
"How To Read Minds"
We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions.
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Isaac Bashevis Singer
"Moral Poverty"
It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
"Equal Opportunity Destroyer"
Alcohol produces artificial happiness, artificial courage, artificial gaiety, artificial self-satisfaction, thus making life bearable for millions who would otherwise be unable to endure their condition. To them alcohol is a blessing. Unfortunately, as it acts by destroying conscience, self-control, and the normal functioning of the body, it produces crime, disease, and degradation.
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
"Precious Time"
No indolence, no laziness; but employ every minute in your life in active pleasures or useful employments...It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.
Lord Chesterfield & Thomas Jefferson
Lord Chesterfield & Thomas Jefferson
"Only The Scent Of The Flower"
The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of the tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
"The Very Consummation"
The Christian, in relation to Heaven, is in much the same position as this schoolboy. Those who have attained everlasting life in the vision of God doubtless know very well that it is no mere bribe, but the very consummation of their earthly discipleship; but we who have not yet attained it cannot know this in the same way, and cannot even begin to know it at all except by continuing to obey and finding the first reward of our obedience in our increasing power to desire the ultimate reward. Just in proportion as the desire grows, our fear lest it should be a mercenary desire will die away and finally be recognized as an absurdity. But probably this will not, for most of us, happen in a day; poetry replaces grammar, Gospel replaces Law, longing transforms obedience, as gradually as the tide lifts a grounded ship.
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
"Crossed Wires"
Our intentions tend to be much more real to us than our actions, and this can lead to a great deal of misunderstanding with other people, to whom our actions tend to be much more real than our intentions.
E.F.Schumacher
E.F.Schumacher
"Gaining Strength"
Refrain tonight,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence.
Shakespeare
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence.
Shakespeare
"Efficiently Effective"
Efficiency is concerned with doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.
Peter F. Drucker
Peter F. Drucker
"The Harnessed Steeds"
The way to avoid evil is not by maiming our passions, but by compelling them to yield their vigor to our moral nature. Thus they become, as in the ancient fable, the harnessed steeds which bear the chariot of the sun.
Henry Ward Beecher
Henry Ward Beecher
"What Does God Call That?"
...we should not blame our fathers, our genes, our hormones, and our stars. We should not uncritically adopt the language of “self-esteem,” “orientations,” “disorders,” “needs,” “psychoses” We should not describe ourselves as “emotionally scarred” or “vulnerable” or “stressed” or “traumatized” or wanting “closure” without continuously checking these notions against the Bible’s own language. Our categories of reality should be the Bible’s own categories, as we aim to conform our minds to the mind of Christ.
Andree Seu
Andree Seu
"Hardening Muscel And Sharpening Wit"
What is the good of pretending to be what you are not? Well, even on the human level, you know, there are two kinds of pretending. There is a bad kind, where the pretense is there instead of the real thing; as when a man pretends he is going to help you instead of really helping you. But there is also a good kind, where the pretense leads up to the real thing. When you are not feeling particularly friendly but know you ought to be, the best thing you can do, very often, is to put on a friendly manner and behave as if you were a nicer person than you actually are. And in a few minutes, as we have all noticed, you will be really feeling friendlier than you were. Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already.That is why children's games are so important. They are always pretending to be grown-ups - playing soldiers, playing shop. But all the time, they are hardening their muscles and sharpening their wits, so that the pretense of being grown-up helps them to grow up in earnest.
C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity pp.187-188
C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity pp.187-188
"Where's The Glory?"
...glory means good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgment, and welcome into the heart of things. The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.
C.S.Lewis
The Weight of Glory pp. 41
C.S.Lewis
The Weight of Glory pp. 41
"As Unto The Lord"
If you are human - your work is to take what God has made and shape it and use it to make Him look great...'Oh how good it is to work for God in the daytime, and at night to lie down under His smiles!'...don't focus on mere material things in your work; Don't labor merely with a view to the perishable things you can buy with your earnings. Work with an eye not mainly to your money, but your usefulness. Work with a view to benefiting people with what you make or do...Think of new ways that your work can bless people.
John Piper/ Jonathan Edwards
Don't Waste Your Life pp 139-148
John Piper/ Jonathan Edwards
Don't Waste Your Life pp 139-148
"May He Smile Upon You"
In the end that Face which is the delight or the terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either with one expression or with the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised.
CS Lewis
CS Lewis
"Mud Pies In A Slum Or A Holiday At The Sea?"
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
CS Lewis
CS Lewis
"The Sooner The Better"
To-morrow I'll reform, the fool does say; To-day itself's too late; - the wise did yesterday.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
"Amnesty Offered. Become A Happy Subject"
There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” Christ has come into this mutinous world, which he made for his own glory, and paid for an amnesty with his own blood. Everyone who lays down the weaponry of unbelief will be absolved from all crimes against the Sovereign of the universe. By faith... enemies will become happy subjects of an everlasting kingdom of justice and joy. Advancing this cause with Christ is worth your life.
Abraham Kuyper quoted by John Piper
Abraham Kuyper quoted by John Piper
"Enviornmentalism For All The Right Reasons"
The value of the things is not in themselves autonomously, but that God made them, and thus they deserve to be treated with high respect. The tree in the field is to be treated with respect. It is not to be romanticized (as if it had feelings). When you drive the ax into the tree when you need firewood, you are not cutting down a person; you are cutting down a tree. But while we should not romanticize the tree, we must realize God made it and it deserves respect because He made it as a tree. The Christian is a man who has a reason for dealing with each created thing on a high level of respect...Thus God treats His creation with integrity: each thing in its own order, each thing the way He made it. If God treats the tree like a tree…the man like a man, shouldn’t I? And for the highest reason: because I love God—I love the One who has made it! Loving the Lover who has made it, I have respect for the thing He has made...
Francis A. Schaeffer
Pollution and the Death of Man, The Christian View of Ecology, pp. 54-57.
Francis A. Schaeffer
Pollution and the Death of Man, The Christian View of Ecology, pp. 54-57.
"How To Conquer Fear"
I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experiences behind him.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
"Read Important Books"
Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.
Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli
"Lovers Of Pleasure Rather Than Lovers Of God"
What has always made a hell on earth has been that man has tried to make it his heaven."
Friedrich Holderin
Friedrich Holderin
"Success"
To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty;
to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better
whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch,
or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
Bessie Anderson Stanley
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty;
to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better
whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch,
or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
Bessie Anderson Stanley
"Straight In The Eye"
Something surprising—I say supernatural—happens when one stops to commit to memory Scripture that one has been in the habit of skimming heretofore. My apologies to all the Christians I found “quaint” for so doing. What they knew all along was that to memorize the Word of God is to watch a frozen two-dimensional scene on the wall spring to life, and all the characters turn and look you straight in the eye. The Word yields its secrets only to the seeker.
Andree Seu
Andree Seu
"Be Nice"
Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"One Vast Need"
...a man's spiritual health is exactly proportional to his love for God...it ought to be growing - [an] awareness that our whole being by its very nature is one vast need; incomplete, preparatory, empty yet cluttered, crying out for Him who can untie things that are now knotted together and tie up things that are still dangling loose.
CS Lewis
CS Lewis
"Stand Firm - Even Alone"
If a man has acted right he has done well, though alone. If wrong, the sanction of all mankind will not justify him.
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
"A Little Goes A Long Way"
An overdose of praise is like 10 lumps of sugar in coffee; only a very few people can swallow it.
Emily Post
Emily Post
"So That You Will Not Grieve As Do The Rest Who Have No Hope"
Then Aslan turned to them and said: '... you are - as you used to call it in the Shadowlands - dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning...'
And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.
C.S. Lewis
And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.
C.S. Lewis
"...With Him And Everything Else Thrown In"
But there must be a real giving up of the self. You must throw it away "blindly" so to speak. Christ will indeed give you a real personality: but you must not go to Him for the sake of that. As long as your own personality is what you are bothering about you are not going to Him at all. The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him.
Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorites wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorites wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
"God's Plan: Regret, Repentance, Relief, Rejoice"
I have talked to some who felt guilt when they jolly well ought to have felt it; they have behaved like brutes and know it. I've also met others who felt guilty and weren't guilty by any standard I can apply. And thirdly, I've met people who were guilty and didn't seem to feel guilt. And isn't this what we should expect? People can be malades imaginaires who are well and think they are ill; and others, especially consumptives, are ill and think they are well; and thirdly - far the largest class - people are ill and know they are ill. It would be very odd if there were any region in which all mistakes were in one direction.
C.S. Lewis
Letters To Malcolm
C.S. Lewis
Letters To Malcolm
"Joy: The Serious Business Of Heaven"
Dance and game are frivolous, unimportant down here; for ‘down here’ is not their natural place. Here, they are a moment’s rest from the life we were placed here to live. But in this world everything is upside down. That which, if it could be prolonged here, would be a truancy, is likest that which in a better country is the End of ends. Joy is the serious business of Heaven.
C.S. Lewis
Letters To Malcolm
C.S. Lewis
Letters To Malcolm
"I Can"
I am only one, but still, I am one. I cannot do everything but I can do something. And, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do what I can.
Edward Everett Hale
Edward Everett Hale
"Get Real"
Eddie Haskell, the neighborhood ne’er-do-well, at the Cleaver’s front door: “Oh, hello, Mrs. Cleaver. That’s a lovely dress you’re wearing today. I wonder if Wallace might be home today, and if I might have a word with him.” Eddie walks into Wally’s room: “Wally, if your dumb brother tags along with us, I’m gonna—oh, hello again, Mrs. Cleaver. I was just telling Wallace how pleasant it would be for Theodore to accompany us to the movies.”
“Integrity” comes from the Latin for “whole,” and that’s instructive to me. I want to be a person of “integrity,” not of spare parts hanging out all over the place that need to be constantly tucked back in, like Scarecrow stuffing his shirt in The Wizard of Oz. It’s too much work to keep up a split personality that poses one way with one person and another way with another person. I have done that for most of my life, in degrees shading from blatant to subtle, and I want to be done with it now.
I notice that the Apostle Paul was a person of “integrity,” or “wholeness.” He didn’t care who he was with. He was Paul. He was the same with “those who seemed to be pillars” (Galatians 2:9) and “those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me . . .)” (2:2,6).
Peter and Barnabas may have had more of a struggle with integrity than Paul, as we learn from an anecdote in which they were rebuked by him for seeing Gentiles socially when the big shots from Jerusalem were not around, but drawing back when they would come. Paul said they were acting “hypocritically” (2:13), which is a word deriving from the Greek for “actor,” and suggesting “pretending.” So there again, we have an issue of “wholeness,” or lack thereof. The hypocrite is two people—or perhaps an infinite number of people.
If you think it is hard to be a person of integrity, it is harder work to not be. To turn on a dime and change your voice from Maude Frickert to Marilyn Monroe when the phone rings and then back to Maude with the children you were just yelling at is embarrassing and ultimately stressful. Jesus called us to peace, and maybe integrity is part of what he had in mind.
Andree Seu
“Integrity” comes from the Latin for “whole,” and that’s instructive to me. I want to be a person of “integrity,” not of spare parts hanging out all over the place that need to be constantly tucked back in, like Scarecrow stuffing his shirt in The Wizard of Oz. It’s too much work to keep up a split personality that poses one way with one person and another way with another person. I have done that for most of my life, in degrees shading from blatant to subtle, and I want to be done with it now.
I notice that the Apostle Paul was a person of “integrity,” or “wholeness.” He didn’t care who he was with. He was Paul. He was the same with “those who seemed to be pillars” (Galatians 2:9) and “those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me . . .)” (2:2,6).
Peter and Barnabas may have had more of a struggle with integrity than Paul, as we learn from an anecdote in which they were rebuked by him for seeing Gentiles socially when the big shots from Jerusalem were not around, but drawing back when they would come. Paul said they were acting “hypocritically” (2:13), which is a word deriving from the Greek for “actor,” and suggesting “pretending.” So there again, we have an issue of “wholeness,” or lack thereof. The hypocrite is two people—or perhaps an infinite number of people.
If you think it is hard to be a person of integrity, it is harder work to not be. To turn on a dime and change your voice from Maude Frickert to Marilyn Monroe when the phone rings and then back to Maude with the children you were just yelling at is embarrassing and ultimately stressful. Jesus called us to peace, and maybe integrity is part of what he had in mind.
Andree Seu
"When The Scoffer Is Punished, The Naive Becomes Wise"
Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
Cato
Cato
"...Yet Heaven Takes Note"
Not a day passes over this earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words and suffer noble sorrows.
Charles Reed
Charles Reed
"Righteous Indignation"
Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way - this is not easy.
Aristotle
Aristotle
"Security Is Mostly Superstition"
Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
Helen Keller
Helen Keller
"Live In The Present"
When I am anxious it is because I am living in the future. When I am depressed it is because I am living in the past.
Unknown
Unknown
"Words"
But words are things,
and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew,
upon a thought,
produces
That which makes thousands,
perhaps millions, think.
Lord Byron
and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew,
upon a thought,
produces
That which makes thousands,
perhaps millions, think.
Lord Byron
"Be Yourself"
-The more we get what we now call "ourselves" out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. There is so much of Him that millions and millions of [Christians] all different, will still be too few to express Him fully. He made them all. He invented-as an author invents characters in a novel-all the different men that you and I were intended to be. In that sense our real selves are all waiting for us in Him. It is no good trying to "be myself" without Him. The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surroundings and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call "Myself" becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop. What I call "My wishes" become merely the desires thrown up by my physical organism or pumped into me by other men's thoughts or even suggested to me by devils... Propaganda will be the real origin of what I regard as my own personal political ideals, I am not, in my natural state, nearly so much of a person as I like to believe: most of what I call "me" can be very easily explained. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own...There are no real personalities anywhere else. Until you have given up yourself to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most "natural" men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
"Character Counts"
To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
"Instead Imagine Conquering"
Cowardice...is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination.
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
"But Is It Reality?"
A belief is not true because it is useful.
Henri Amiel
__________
Let God be true, though every man a liar” (Romans 3:4). That is the challenge in a nutshell: against all the supposed data to the contrary, to stick to the Word of God.
If you cock your ear today, you will hear many things that people say—unexamined and unchallenged folk wisdom straight from the pit of hell (James 3:15). You will hear it on the street, and you will hear it between your ears while driving the car and folding the laundry. The opposition described in Galatians 5:16-17 is an active and continuous warfare in the spirit realm, not a formal principle. Deal with it as a formal principle (i.e., don’t deal with it), and you will lose the war by forfeit.
God says, 'Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect' (Romans 12:2). The mind is transformed as it aligns itself to God’s Word, the only reliable touchstone. Take captive every renegade thought (2 Corinthians 10:5), run it by the Word, and watch out for well-meaning little old ladies.
Andree Seu
Henri Amiel
__________
Let God be true, though every man a liar” (Romans 3:4). That is the challenge in a nutshell: against all the supposed data to the contrary, to stick to the Word of God.
If you cock your ear today, you will hear many things that people say—unexamined and unchallenged folk wisdom straight from the pit of hell (James 3:15). You will hear it on the street, and you will hear it between your ears while driving the car and folding the laundry. The opposition described in Galatians 5:16-17 is an active and continuous warfare in the spirit realm, not a formal principle. Deal with it as a formal principle (i.e., don’t deal with it), and you will lose the war by forfeit.
God says, 'Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect' (Romans 12:2). The mind is transformed as it aligns itself to God’s Word, the only reliable touchstone. Take captive every renegade thought (2 Corinthians 10:5), run it by the Word, and watch out for well-meaning little old ladies.
Andree Seu
"Off Your Rocker"
Worry is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere.
UnKnown
UnKnown
"How To Make Stick"
I tell you and you forget. I show you and you remember. I involve you and you understand.
Unknown
Unknown
"Be Good. Be Genuine."
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.
Andre Gide
Andre Gide
"Your First Love"
Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you. The mould in which a key is made would be a strange thing, if you had never seen a key: and the key itself a strange thing if you had never seen a lock. Your soul has a curious shape because it is a hollow made to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours of the divine substance, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the house with many mansions. For it is not humanity in the abstract that is to be saved, but you - you, the individual reader, John Stubbs or Janet Smith. Blessed and fortunate creature, your eyes shall behold Him and not another's. All that you are, sins apart, is destined, if you will let God have His good way, to utter satisfaction. The Brocken spectre* 'looked to every man like his first love', because she was a cheat. But God will look to every soul like its first love because He is its first love. Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it - made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand.
CS Lewis
The Problem of Pain ch.10
CS Lewis
The Problem of Pain ch.10
"Skip The Cover Up"
Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them."
Francois duc de la Rochefoucauld
Francois duc de la Rochefoucauld
"Tender And Green"
Humility, that low, sweet root, from which all heavenly virtues shoot."
Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore
"No Ulterior Motives"
The true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.
Ann Landers
Ann Landers
"How Could He Do Such A Thing?"
No man chooses evil because it is evil, he only mistakes it for happiness...
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
"Stop And Say I Love You"
The death of a spouse, one learns, is a package that comes full of surprises released one by one...The lesson of this year is finite numbers: There is a finite number of rainbows you will see in your lifetime, a finite number of full moons - and surprisingly few after all. A finite number of times you will walk into your husband's study and choose to stop and say "I love you," or just brush past for the book you were after.
Andree Seu
Andree Seu
"Eros 101"
Eros does not aim at happiness. We may think he does, but when he is brought to the test it proves otherwise. Everyone knows that it is useless to try to separate lovers by proving to them that their marriage will be an unhappy one. This is not only because they will disbelieve you. They usually will, no doubt. But even if they believed, they would not be dissuaded. For it is the very mark of Eros that when he is in us we had rather share unhappiness with the Beloved than be happy on any other terms...Eros, honoured without reservation and obeyed unconditionally, becomes a demon. And this is just how he claims to be honoured and obeyed. Divinely indifferent to our selfishness, he is also demoniacally rebellious to every claim of God or Man that would oppose him. Hence as the poet says:
People in love cannot be moved by kindness,
And opposition makes them feel like martyrs.
Martyrs is exactly right...Of all loves he is, at his height, most god-like; therefore most prone to demand our worship. Of himself he always tends to turn "being in love" into a sort of religion... The real danger seems to me not that the lovers will idolise each other but that they will idolise Eros himself...He is notoriously the most mortal of our loves..."I will be ever true," are almost the first words he utters...Eros is driven to promise what Eros of himself cannot perform...Thus Eros, like the other loves, but more strikingly because of his strength, sweetness, terror and high port, reveals his true status. He cannot of himself be what, nevertheless, he must be if he is to remain Eros. He needs help; therefore needs to be ruled. The god dies or becomes a demon unless he obeys God. It would be well if, in such case, he always died. But he may live on, mercilessly chaining together two mutual tormentors, each raw all over with the poison of hate- in-love, each ravenous to receive and implacably re-fusing to give, jealous, suspicious, resentful, struggling for the upper hand, determined to be free and to allow no freedom, living on "scenes."
CS Lewis
The Four Loves
People in love cannot be moved by kindness,
And opposition makes them feel like martyrs.
Martyrs is exactly right...Of all loves he is, at his height, most god-like; therefore most prone to demand our worship. Of himself he always tends to turn "being in love" into a sort of religion... The real danger seems to me not that the lovers will idolise each other but that they will idolise Eros himself...He is notoriously the most mortal of our loves..."I will be ever true," are almost the first words he utters...Eros is driven to promise what Eros of himself cannot perform...Thus Eros, like the other loves, but more strikingly because of his strength, sweetness, terror and high port, reveals his true status. He cannot of himself be what, nevertheless, he must be if he is to remain Eros. He needs help; therefore needs to be ruled. The god dies or becomes a demon unless he obeys God. It would be well if, in such case, he always died. But he may live on, mercilessly chaining together two mutual tormentors, each raw all over with the poison of hate- in-love, each ravenous to receive and implacably re-fusing to give, jealous, suspicious, resentful, struggling for the upper hand, determined to be free and to allow no freedom, living on "scenes."
CS Lewis
The Four Loves
Monday, January 18, 2010 "Your "Decision: A Son Like John, Or A Tool Like Judas?"
A merciful man aims at his neighbour's good as so does 'God's' will, consciously co-operating with 'the simple good'. A cruel man oppresses his neighbour and so does simple evil. But in doing such evil he is used by God, without his knowledge or consent, to produce the complex good — so that the first man serves God as a son, and the second as a tool. For you will certainly carry out God's purpose, however you act, but it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John.
CS Lewis
The Problem of Pain
CS Lewis
The Problem of Pain
"The Rest Of Your Life Can Be The Best Of Your Life"
Love God with all your heart: You were planned for God’s pleasure, so your purpose is to love God through worship. Love your neighbor as yourself: You were shaped for serving, so your purpose is to show love for others through ministry. Go and make disciples: You were made for a mission, so your purpose is to share God’s message through evangelism. Baptize them...You were formed for God’s family so your purpose is to identify with his church through fellowship. Teach them to do all things: You were created to become like Christ, so your purpose is to grow to maturity through discipleship. [Join] a small group for accountability...We learn best in community. Our minds are sharpened and our convictions are deepened through conversation...Regardless of your age, the rest of your life can be the best of your life…
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp. 306-307, 311.
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp. 306-307, 311.
"Building A Relational Bridge"
You have a storehouse of experiences that God wants to use to bring others into His family…there is no other story just like yours, so only you can share it. If you don’t share it, it will be lost forever…personal stories are also easier to relate to...and people love to hear them. They capture our attention, and we remember them longer…Shared stories build a relational bridge that Jesus can walk across from your heart to theirs...While it is wise to learn from experience, it is wiser to learn from the experiences of others. There isn’t enough time to learn everything in life by trial and error. We must learn from the life lessons of one another… imagine how much needless frustration could be avoided if we learned from each other’s life lessons.
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp 289-292
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp 289-292
"Feeling The Shortness Of The Tether"
The second enemy is frustration -- the feeling that we shall not have time to finish. If I say to you that no one has time to finish, that the longest human life leaves a man, in any branch of learning, a beginner, I shall seem to you to be saying something quite academic and theoretical. You would be surprised if you knew how soon one begins to feel the shortness of the tether: of how many things, even in middle life, we lave to say "No time for that", "Too late now", and "Not for me". But Nature herself forbids you to share that experience. A more Christian attitude, which can be attained
at any age, is that of leaving futurity in God's hands. We may as well, for God will certainly retain it whether we leave it to Him or not. Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment "as to the Lord". It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.
CS Lewis
The Weight of Glory pp 60-61
at any age, is that of leaving futurity in God's hands. We may as well, for God will certainly retain it whether we leave it to Him or not. Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment "as to the Lord". It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.
CS Lewis
The Weight of Glory pp 60-61
"The Art Of Life"
I think the best results are obtained by people who work quietly away at limited objectives, such as the abolition of the slave trade, or prison reform, or factory acts, or tuberculosis, not by those who think they can achieve universal justice, or health, or peace. I think the art of life consists in tackling each immediate evil as well as we can...just as the dentist who can stop one toothache has deserved better of humanity than all the men who think they have some scheme for producing a perfectly healthy race.
CS Lewis
The Weight Of Glory pp.79-80
CS Lewis
The Weight Of Glory pp.79-80
Aged To Perfection
Believers in progress rightly note that in the world of machines the new model supersedes the old; from this they falsely infer a similar kind of supercession in such things a virtue and wisdom
CS Lewis
The Weight of Glory pp82
CS Lewis
The Weight of Glory pp82
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