Falling in love is not an extension of one's limits or boundaries; it is a partial and temporary collapse of them. Once the precious moment of falling in love has passed and the boundaries have snapped back in place, the individual is disillusioned. Real love (the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth) is a permanently self enlarging experience. Falling in love is not. M Scott Peck
The Road Less Traveled
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. – Psalm 46:10,11
Given what the Psalmists says about observing the world around us in this chapter, it’s not just knowing God through sitting still or reading the Bible. When you are floating down a beautiful river in a canoe and the scenery takes your breath away, you are “knowing God”. Recognize Him in that moment. Know him through his Word, through his people, through the world he created. Listen for his voice. Be still. Don’t let life’s sirens and urgencies crowd God out of your life.
Stephen Goforth
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. – Eleanor Roosevelt
For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. - H. L. Mencken
The truth is humans are pretty clearly divided on (the matter of indecent or bawdy humour) into two classes. There are some to whom "no passion is as serious as lust' and for whom an indecent story ceases to produce lasciviousness precisely in so far as it becomes funny: there are others in whom laughter and lust are excited at the same moment and by the same things. The first sort joke about sex because it gives rise to many incongruities: the second cultivate incongruities because they afford a pretext for talking about sex. If your man is of the first type, bawdy humour will not help you — I shall never forget the hours which I wasted (hours to me of unbearable tedium) with one with one of my early patients in bars and smoking-rooms before I learned this rule.A thousand bawdy, or even blasphemous, jokes do not help towards a man's damnation so much as his discovery that almost anything he wants to do can be done, not only without the disapproval but with the admiration of his fellows, if only it can get itself treated as a Joke.
CS Lewis
Screwtape Letters
Do all the good you can,
by all the means you can,
in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can,
at all the times you can,
to all the people you can,
as long as ever you can.
John Wesley
Few study religion to learn how to live – many search it for justification for the way they already live.
It’s also helpful distinguishing between “pleasure artists” and “critical” artists. The later, working in the context of other’s expectations. The former laboring from their own.
One tiddlywinks player knows how the game has been used by others (its history, nuances, performance art uses, etc) while another may be ignorant of all or part of these going’s on.
Let’s say our player nows bits and pieces of the context - but doesn’t care. Is his work meaningless because it doesn’t fit within the system? Or is it the whole system that is meaningless, because, after all, it IS tiddlywinks. Or (a third possibility) would be that it is of value solely, and for no other reason, than it gives him pleasure and the satisfaction of feeling that he has accomplished something?
And I suppose that’s the real question: Does he really accomplish something just because he “feels” like he does? With no other confirmations attesting to that fact? Is his feeling of satisfaction justified?
We’ve all had the sense of satisfaction that comes from skipping a rock across the water a certain number of times. Is that a false and phony notion? Are we justified in turning to the child, who reaches her “skipping goal” and saying to her, “Way to go!” as if the child has accomplished something worthwhile? Should we treat the act as pointless? Or is its value in the fact that it can serve to symbolize to the child how she may succeed at “real” goals and purposes later in life? Is it just a confidence builder?
It reminds me of the old story about the artist who took extra care with his work at the top of a church steeple. He was questioned about the value of doing this when no one would see it. “God will see it” is supposed to have been his reply. If we nod our heads to this tale, agreeing there is some truth to it, then why not say the same for our tiddlywinks player? And our rock skipper? If God takes pleasure in unseen spirals, then why not unrecognized (not part of the system) games and odd skills? Since the individual involved takes pleasure performing them?
The guilt-driven part of me wants to say, “The tiddlywinks man should be out helping orphans and widows instead of wasting time!” But if we follow that reasoning out, I think we wind up giving up art and any other activity that doesn’t fit into the lowest ranking of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Who are we to tell the artist he’s wasting his time, because he doesn’t attempt to fit into the system of social rewards that we’ve decided to invest in ourselves? We stomp our foot and complain, “How dare he not play OUR game!” Are we actually concerned about him and his time? Or are we really just defending our own investment, acting out of the fear that we may have (partly) wasted our own time and energy?
I’m reminded of Eric Liddle who’s story is told in “Chariots of Fire”. He said, “When I run, I feel His pleasure.” Is this a worthy response, only when the speaker has an Olympic medal handing on his chest? Or it is just as true, when our impassioned runner is slow, awkward and has no audience or purpose? Not even “getting into shape”?
So, at the moment I think I have left myself without much ground for looking down on others for creating, what is in my mind “pointless dribble”. But I’m sure I’m still morally superior, of course. I’m just not sure why.
Stephen Goforth
M Scott Peck
The Road Less Traveled
He feels that he deserves punishment and therefore is constantly anticipating that punishment. As a result he live in a constant apprehension that something is going to happen. In order to find peace under these circumstances, he must increase the intensity of this activity. He feels that hard work will give him some release from his sense of guilt… Peace of mind under such circumstances is available by yielding the guilt as well as the tension it produces to the healing therapy of Christ.
Norman Vincent Peale
The Power of Positive Thinking
We appreciate what a person does, but we affirm who a person is. Appreciation comes and goes because it is usually related to something someone accomplishes. Affirmation goes deeper. It is directed to the person himself or herself. While encouragement would encompass both, the rarer of the two is affirmation. To be appreciated, we get the distinct impression that we must earn it by some accomplishment. But affirmation requires no such prerequisite. This mean that even when we don’t earn the right to be appreciated (because we failed to succeed or because we lacked the accomplishment of some goal), we can still be affirmed – indeed, we need it then more than ever. I do not care how influential or secure or mature a person may appear to be, genuine encouragement never fails to help. Most of us need massive doses as we slug it out in the trenches.
Charles Swindoll
Strengthening Your Grip
Keith Miller
The Becomers