Useless Ideals
Quite frankly, I’m sick to death of ideals. I have so many ideals and I’ve been so frustrated by them, I really don’t care for any more. What I’m looking for is a savior—not someone who will just tell me what I ought to be, but someone who will forgive me for what I am, and then with his very love will enable me to be more than I ever believed I could be. It’s exactly that that Jesus does.
—Bruce Thielemann in “Telltale Tears” (1986 Preaching Today)
Foolish demands?
The things Jesus demands are entirely foolhardy—until you begin to share His view of things. Come to see money not as a passport to luxury but as a dangerous encumbrance, and you will not find it so ridiculous to give to whomever wants to borrow. Realize that your purpose in life is to give His love away, and you will find it easier to refrain from striking back at people who can hurt you.
—John Boykin in The Gospel of Coincidence
A listener’s prayer
God
Grant me to be
silent before you—
that I may hear you;
at rest in you—
that you may work in me;
open to you—
that you may enter;
empty before you—
that you may fill me.
Let me be still
And know you are my God.
Amen.
—Sir Paul Reeves; prayer at the WCC Seventh Assembly in Canberra, Australia
Blessing by trial
No trouble seems pleasant at the time. Yet in God’s economy, it is this pain which brings forth new faith. How often we hear, “I thank God for that hard time; it was the best thing that ever happened to me.” Even when we may not find the grace to thank God for our tribulation, we can thank Him for the good that comes from our fire.
—Virginia Law Shell in Good News (Nov.—Dec 1990)
“Behind the times” but not outdated
It can be exalting to belong to a church that is 500 years behind the times and sublimely indifferent to fashion; it is mortifying to belong to a church that is five minutes behind the times, huffing and puffing to catch up.
—Joseph Sobran, quoted by Cal Thomas in an address to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (June 25, 1991)
Knowledge comes from obedience
Never try to explain God until you have obeyed Him. The only bit of God we understand is the bit we have obeyed.
—Oswald Chambers in Run Today’s Race
The American way
Abortion is not some little mistake. Abortion is a reflection of who Americans are: people in the United States are supposed to concentrate on themselves and pursue happiness; thus, they ask themselves, “Why should we bother having children?”
—Stanley Hauerwas interviewed in U.S. Catholic (June 1991)
Forgiven slimeballs
[Robert] Coles is that remarkable thing, a big-deal academic big-shot shrink who doesn’t go eek! when he hears assertions of faith. He seems to believe that guilt is not always neurosis and might even, in some instances, be God’s way of telling you that you’re a slimeball, even if a forgiven slimeball.
—Michael O. Garvey in a review of Robert Coles’s Harvard Diary (Books & Religion, Spring 1991)
The Eternal’s opinion
As I grow older, I care less and less what people think about me and more and more what God thinks of me. I expect to be with him much longer than with you.
—Robert Baker in County Road 13
