Mediocrity: Attack the Root
6 days ago
If It Isn't On Youtube, It Didn't Happen
I've started to share some videos with the world. Enjoy them HERE
Wrestling With Angels
Today I give you things that really stood out to me, made me think, challenged me, etc from Wrestling With Angels: Adventures in Faith and Doubt by Carolyn Arends. Compliments of my good buddy Storm, by the way.
referring to God's people in the Old Testament:
"They dream big, the fall far, they learn the hard way that God is larger than they are and they can't out-sin His grace (try as they might)."
"Imagine that. God names not just Jacob, but His people, His nation, His church: Israel. God wrestlers...So much of my struggle has been about the struggle itself, feeling that faith should be easier, that encountering God should be a walk in the garden, not ten rounds in the ring. I've always known I was supposed to be a God believer, a God follower, a God lover, even a God pro claimer, But I did not know I could be - should be - a God wrestler."
"All the grandiose and mundane and silly things that happen to us, the wonderful little epiphanies and the ugly little thoughts that cross our minds and change our hearts, the times when nothing much seems to happen at all except that we are sitting around becoming who we are - it all matters. And so, when we gather around campfires and kitchen tables and begin, "Have I ever told you about the time..." we engage in a profoundly human activity. We acknowledge our connection to each other. We learn to listen to the meaning encoded in the happenings of our lives."
"I can't help but think that all the realists who keep insisting that life is no walk in the park, have just never found the right park."
"Prayer is the point of access, the place where the finite and the infinite intersect and converse. To pray is to enter at least a little way into the Mystery, or - and this is even more dangerous - to invite the Mystery to come to you."
"Like flowers breaking through the sidewalk cement, our souls endure under the greatest adversity - Forget-Me-Nots stubbornly blooming even in the cracks of our brokenness."
and some quotes:
"Every happening, great or small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message." - Malcolm Muggeridge
"My idea of God us not a Divine Idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself. he is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of Hos presence?" - CS Lewis
referring to God's people in the Old Testament:
"They dream big, the fall far, they learn the hard way that God is larger than they are and they can't out-sin His grace (try as they might)."
"Imagine that. God names not just Jacob, but His people, His nation, His church: Israel. God wrestlers...So much of my struggle has been about the struggle itself, feeling that faith should be easier, that encountering God should be a walk in the garden, not ten rounds in the ring. I've always known I was supposed to be a God believer, a God follower, a God lover, even a God pro claimer, But I did not know I could be - should be - a God wrestler."
"All the grandiose and mundane and silly things that happen to us, the wonderful little epiphanies and the ugly little thoughts that cross our minds and change our hearts, the times when nothing much seems to happen at all except that we are sitting around becoming who we are - it all matters. And so, when we gather around campfires and kitchen tables and begin, "Have I ever told you about the time..." we engage in a profoundly human activity. We acknowledge our connection to each other. We learn to listen to the meaning encoded in the happenings of our lives."
"I can't help but think that all the realists who keep insisting that life is no walk in the park, have just never found the right park."
"Prayer is the point of access, the place where the finite and the infinite intersect and converse. To pray is to enter at least a little way into the Mystery, or - and this is even more dangerous - to invite the Mystery to come to you."
"Like flowers breaking through the sidewalk cement, our souls endure under the greatest adversity - Forget-Me-Nots stubbornly blooming even in the cracks of our brokenness."
and some quotes:
"Every happening, great or small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message." - Malcolm Muggeridge
"My idea of God us not a Divine Idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself. he is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of Hos presence?" - CS Lewis
Flashbang. How I Got Over Myself
These thoughts are from Flashbang: How I Got Over Myself by Mark Steele.
"I must swallow my pride.
Forget what I believe I deserve.
And get over myself.
Resist the world's freedoms.
Embrace God's parameters.
Allow myself to be accountable and restricted.
Choose to go without every little thing I want.
Strengthen my character.
Determine where I am incorrect.
Humble myself.
Stop manipulating God's way to look like my preferences
and choose His plan-His way- for every detail.
If I can just deal with life and allow God to use those dealings
to transform me into the right person-the explosive person,
the person with gun powder in my veins-
then the noise I make will be worth hearing.
The fire that is seen in my life will scorch the room.
The substance of my life will pierce the hearts of those around me.
And where I stand, I will always leave a mark."
"It should take a sacrifice on many levels to accomplish God's task because this task is supposed to change me, and change does not occur where circumstances are predictable and comfortable."
"recently I did the [read the Bible through in a year] plan
Impressive. How long did it take you?
2 years, 8 months
Forget what I said about impressive
I was looking for the common theme that connected all the books together because I've always been a little nonplussed by the genealogy chapters where they list 367 unpronounceable names in one sitting
you don't enjoy those?
Not a big fan. No.
So, did you come up with anything?
In fact- I did.
And?
Every book of the Bible doe have on central theme in common, and it was a vastly important lesson for me.
The tension is mounting.
Never forget God.
Okay, Now, I'm intrigued.
Well think about it. Why would those genealogies be there in the first place? It means that history is extremely important to God. How we got to where we are-how we learned what we learned-and how God made it all happen. God gets the people in the Bible out of scrape after scrape and tragedy after tragedy because- let's face it- a lot of those guys made some pretty bad choices.
But the grandest mistake of all is that after God would help them, rescue them, or change them, they would have a tendency to eventually forget. So God appears as fire and smoke to remind them. he has them build a tabernacle. He sends tablets of stone down from the mountain. He puts a ram in a bush and a star in the east and a rainbow in the sky and a child in an animal trough and sends prophets and psalmists and judges and angels and dreams and goes to the great lengths necessary so that we are constantly reminded that He loves us and does not want us to FORGET that He loves us because when we forget that he loves us- bad things happen.
why do bad things happen?
Because when we forget that He is God, we have a tendency to believe that we are.
oh.
"I must swallow my pride.
Forget what I believe I deserve.
And get over myself.
Resist the world's freedoms.
Embrace God's parameters.
Allow myself to be accountable and restricted.
Choose to go without every little thing I want.
Strengthen my character.
Determine where I am incorrect.
Humble myself.
Stop manipulating God's way to look like my preferences
and choose His plan-His way- for every detail.
If I can just deal with life and allow God to use those dealings
to transform me into the right person-the explosive person,
the person with gun powder in my veins-
then the noise I make will be worth hearing.
The fire that is seen in my life will scorch the room.
The substance of my life will pierce the hearts of those around me.
And where I stand, I will always leave a mark."
"It should take a sacrifice on many levels to accomplish God's task because this task is supposed to change me, and change does not occur where circumstances are predictable and comfortable."
"recently I did the [read the Bible through in a year] plan
Impressive. How long did it take you?
2 years, 8 months
Forget what I said about impressive
I was looking for the common theme that connected all the books together because I've always been a little nonplussed by the genealogy chapters where they list 367 unpronounceable names in one sitting
you don't enjoy those?
Not a big fan. No.
So, did you come up with anything?
In fact- I did.
And?
Every book of the Bible doe have on central theme in common, and it was a vastly important lesson for me.
The tension is mounting.
Never forget God.
Okay, Now, I'm intrigued.
Well think about it. Why would those genealogies be there in the first place? It means that history is extremely important to God. How we got to where we are-how we learned what we learned-and how God made it all happen. God gets the people in the Bible out of scrape after scrape and tragedy after tragedy because- let's face it- a lot of those guys made some pretty bad choices.
But the grandest mistake of all is that after God would help them, rescue them, or change them, they would have a tendency to eventually forget. So God appears as fire and smoke to remind them. he has them build a tabernacle. He sends tablets of stone down from the mountain. He puts a ram in a bush and a star in the east and a rainbow in the sky and a child in an animal trough and sends prophets and psalmists and judges and angels and dreams and goes to the great lengths necessary so that we are constantly reminded that He loves us and does not want us to FORGET that He loves us because when we forget that he loves us- bad things happen.
why do bad things happen?
Because when we forget that He is God, we have a tendency to believe that we are.
oh.
Why Pro-Life: Caring for the Unborn and Their Mothers
I just finished Why Pro-Life: Caring for the Unborn and Their Mothers by Randy Alcorn. I'm inspired, burdened, enlightened, confused, happy, sick to my stomach, and about a half a million other emotions.
Why Pro-Life
I could make a million posts on each chapter from this book, but I think I will just throw a few tidbits out there that I found really interesting, challenging, or thought-provoking.
"...every argument that appeals to a mother's inconvenience, stress, and financial hardship can be made just as persuasively about her 12-year-old, her husband, or her parents."
"...all of this happens in the first trimester, the first 3 months of life. In the remaining 6 months in the womb nothing new develops or begins functioning. The fully intact child only grows and matures- unless her life is lost by miscarriage or taken through abortion.
It's an indisputable scientific fact that each surgical abortion in America stops a beating heart and stops already measurable brainwaves. What do we call it when a person no longer has a heartbeat or brain waves? Death. What should we call it when there is a heartbeat and there are brain waves? Life. Every abortion ends a human life."
Is The Unborn Part Of The Woman's Body
"A body part is defined by the common genetic code it shares with the rest of its body. Every cell of the mother's tonsils, appendix, heart, and lungs shares the same genetic code. The unborn child also has a genetic code, but it is distinctly different from his mother's. Every cell of his body is uniquely his, each different from every cell of his mother's body. Often the blood type is different, and half the time it's gender is different."
Women's Rights
"In their publication The American Feminist, Feminist For Life features the beautiful face of a child and asks, "Is this the face of the enemy?" They argue that they stand on 200 years of pro-life feminist history, and that it wasn't until the 1970's that the women's movement embraced abortion...
...It's ironic that abortion has been turned into a women's rights issue when it has encouraged male irresponsibility and failure to care for the women and children.
...One of the ironies of feminism is that by its advocacy of abortion it has endorsed the single greatest means of robbing women of their most basic right-the right to life. Abortion has become the primary means of eliminating unwanted females across the globe.
The Right To Choose
"There are many things you are not pro-choice about-including whether someone has the right to choose to assault you, rob you, break into your house, steal your car, or cheat you in a business deal. It's self evident that people have the freedom to make these choices, but that doesn't mean they have the right to make them.
Does Abortion Harm a Woman's Health
"I read a newspaper editorial arguing that abortion is just another surgery, no different from a root canal or an appendectomy. But why don't people remember the anniversary of their appendectomy twenty years later? Why don't they find themselves weeping uncontrollably, grieving the loss of their appendix? And where are all the support groups and counseling for those who've had root canals?"
Does Abortion Prevent Child Abuse
"The argument that aborting a child prevents child abuse is true only in the same sense that killing a wife prevents wife abuse. Dead people can no longer be abused...but preventing their abuse by killing them is convoluted logic.
...Studies indicate that child abuse is more frequent among mothers who have previously had an abortion. Dr. Phillip Ney's studies indicate that this is partially due to the guilt and depression caused by abortion, which hinders the mother's ability to bond with future children."
What About Adoption
"Do women really want abortions? Frederica Matthewes-Green, past president of Feminists For Life, says, "No one wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal, caught in a trap, wants to gnaw off it's own leg. Abortion is a tragic attempt to escape a desperate situation by an act of violence and self-loss.
...The National Council for Adoption estimates 1.3 million couples are waiting to adopt a child. Yet each year, while 1.3 million children are being killed by abortion, less then 50,000 new children are made available for adoption. This means that for every new adoptable child, thirty others are killed. For every couple that adopts, another 40 wait in line."
Why Pro-Life
I could make a million posts on each chapter from this book, but I think I will just throw a few tidbits out there that I found really interesting, challenging, or thought-provoking.
"...every argument that appeals to a mother's inconvenience, stress, and financial hardship can be made just as persuasively about her 12-year-old, her husband, or her parents."
"...all of this happens in the first trimester, the first 3 months of life. In the remaining 6 months in the womb nothing new develops or begins functioning. The fully intact child only grows and matures- unless her life is lost by miscarriage or taken through abortion.
It's an indisputable scientific fact that each surgical abortion in America stops a beating heart and stops already measurable brainwaves. What do we call it when a person no longer has a heartbeat or brain waves? Death. What should we call it when there is a heartbeat and there are brain waves? Life. Every abortion ends a human life."
Is The Unborn Part Of The Woman's Body
"A body part is defined by the common genetic code it shares with the rest of its body. Every cell of the mother's tonsils, appendix, heart, and lungs shares the same genetic code. The unborn child also has a genetic code, but it is distinctly different from his mother's. Every cell of his body is uniquely his, each different from every cell of his mother's body. Often the blood type is different, and half the time it's gender is different."
Women's Rights
"In their publication The American Feminist, Feminist For Life features the beautiful face of a child and asks, "Is this the face of the enemy?" They argue that they stand on 200 years of pro-life feminist history, and that it wasn't until the 1970's that the women's movement embraced abortion...
...It's ironic that abortion has been turned into a women's rights issue when it has encouraged male irresponsibility and failure to care for the women and children.
...One of the ironies of feminism is that by its advocacy of abortion it has endorsed the single greatest means of robbing women of their most basic right-the right to life. Abortion has become the primary means of eliminating unwanted females across the globe.
The Right To Choose
"There are many things you are not pro-choice about-including whether someone has the right to choose to assault you, rob you, break into your house, steal your car, or cheat you in a business deal. It's self evident that people have the freedom to make these choices, but that doesn't mean they have the right to make them.
Does Abortion Harm a Woman's Health
"I read a newspaper editorial arguing that abortion is just another surgery, no different from a root canal or an appendectomy. But why don't people remember the anniversary of their appendectomy twenty years later? Why don't they find themselves weeping uncontrollably, grieving the loss of their appendix? And where are all the support groups and counseling for those who've had root canals?"
Does Abortion Prevent Child Abuse
"The argument that aborting a child prevents child abuse is true only in the same sense that killing a wife prevents wife abuse. Dead people can no longer be abused...but preventing their abuse by killing them is convoluted logic.
...Studies indicate that child abuse is more frequent among mothers who have previously had an abortion. Dr. Phillip Ney's studies indicate that this is partially due to the guilt and depression caused by abortion, which hinders the mother's ability to bond with future children."
What About Adoption
"Do women really want abortions? Frederica Matthewes-Green, past president of Feminists For Life, says, "No one wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal, caught in a trap, wants to gnaw off it's own leg. Abortion is a tragic attempt to escape a desperate situation by an act of violence and self-loss.
...The National Council for Adoption estimates 1.3 million couples are waiting to adopt a child. Yet each year, while 1.3 million children are being killed by abortion, less then 50,000 new children are made available for adoption. This means that for every new adoptable child, thirty others are killed. For every couple that adopts, another 40 wait in line."
Before I Die...
I stumbled upon an interesting site called Before I Die I Want To.... The idea is simple, people take a picture of themselfe and they write something that they want to accomplish before they die.
The idea sounds interesting, but it really isn't. After scrolling through about 20 pictures you get the idea that all anybody wants to do is travel a little and then call it a life. I find this very strange but I'm not sure why. Wanting to travel is a legitimate desire. Heck, I'd like to travel back down to Florida instead of going to work today.
But is that really the ultimate? I'm trying to decide how I would feel on my deathbed if I could say, "well at least I traveled around a little bit." This answer isn't satisfying me, I guess I just can't believe that this is the overwhelming response on this website.
hmm...
before I die, I want to...
The idea sounds interesting, but it really isn't. After scrolling through about 20 pictures you get the idea that all anybody wants to do is travel a little and then call it a life. I find this very strange but I'm not sure why. Wanting to travel is a legitimate desire. Heck, I'd like to travel back down to Florida instead of going to work today.
But is that really the ultimate? I'm trying to decide how I would feel on my deathbed if I could say, "well at least I traveled around a little bit." This answer isn't satisfying me, I guess I just can't believe that this is the overwhelming response on this website.
hmm...
before I die, I want to...
Back From The Sunshine State
Back at work after an excellent vacation. I will post more on that with some pictures later. Hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day Holiday. I'm on limited time so I'm just leaving you with 2 quotes for today.
"Twixt optimist and pessimist
The difference is droll
The optimist sees the doughnut
The pessimist sees the hole"
-McLandburgh Wilson
""Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"Twixt optimist and pessimist
The difference is droll
The optimist sees the doughnut
The pessimist sees the hole"
-McLandburgh Wilson
""Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world." - Eleanor Roosevelt
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