letting go

“Nora, you have to let go. Julia needs to move on”
“How do I do that?”
“Start by wishing her well”

-Brothers and Sisters

 

Possibly one of the most devastating things that can happen to us as Christians is that we cease to expect anything to happen. I am not sure but that this is not one of our greatest troubles today. We come to our services and they are orderly, they are nice ‒ we come, we go ‒ and sometimes they are timed almost to the minute, and there it is. But that is not Christianity, my friend. Where is the Lord of glory? Where is the one sitting by the well? Are we expecting him? Do we anticipate this? Are we open to it? Are we aware that we are ever facing this glorious possibility of having the greatest surprise of our life? Or let me put it like this. You may feel and say ‒ as many do ‒ ‘I was converted and became a Christian. I’ve grown ‒ yes, I’ve grown in knowledge, I’ve been reading books, I’ve been listening to sermons, but I’ve arrived now at a sort of peak and all I do is maintain that. For the rest of my life I will just go on like this.’ Now, my friend, you must get rid of that attitude; you must get rid of it once and for ever. That is ‘religion’, it is not Christianity. This is Christianity: the Lord appears! Suddenly, in the midst of the drudgery and the routine and the sameness and the dullness and the drabness, unexpectedly, surprisingly, he meets with you and he says something to you that changes the whole of your life and your outlook and lifts you to a level that you had never conceived could be possible for you. Oh, if we get nothing else from this story, I hope we will get this. Do not let the devil persuade you that you have got all you are going to get, still less that you received all you were ever going to receive when you were converted. That has been a popular teaching, even among evangelicals. You get everything at your conversion, it is said, including baptism with the Spirit, and nothing further, ever. Oh, do not believe it; it is not true. It is not true to the teaching of the Scriptures, it is not true in the experience of the saints running down the centuries. There is always this glorious possibility of meeting with him in a new and a dynamic way.

-Living Water: Studies in John 4 by Martin Lloyd-Jones

 

The reality of God

At a Christian camp in Colorado, a woman Bible teacher gave an illustration that changed my life.  She said, “If the distance between the Earth and the Sun, 92 million miles, was reduced to the thickness of a sheet of paper, then the distance between the Earth and the nearest star would be a stack of paper 70 feet high.  And the diameter of the galaxy would be a stack of paper 310 miles high.  That’s how big the galaxy is.  And yet, the galaxy is nothing but a speck of dust, virtually, in the whole universe.  And the Bible says Jesus Christ holds this universe together with the word of his power.  His pinky, as it were.”  And then she asked the question: “Is this the kind of person you ask into your life to be your assistant?”

-Tim Keller in his sermon The Gospel and Your Self

 

If you play erotic games of desire and power, a moment may come when you are so turned on that all reason leaves you and you are nothing but your wanting, nothing but your screaming animal desire, no thoughts of justice, no plans for the future, no love of virginity, nothing but the moment and what you want, and in this moment if you are like millions of men and women throughout the millennia you will do what you did not plan to do. So prepare. Respect the power of your own erotic nature; meditate upon this most evolutionarily important aspect of the species: that we are designed to fuck and fuck a lot. Respect this part of yourself. Ready yourself and carry condoms. And if that moment comes, be ready to say I may give in to it and if I do give in to it, that does not mean I have failed; it just means I am human. I did what my species was designed to do.
–Cary Tennis, to a woman who wants to experiment while remaining a virgin

 

“Nora, you’re a very powerful woman…”

“Nora, you’re a very powerful woman.  But you didn’t cause this, and you can’t fix it.”

-Saul on Brothers and Sisters

 

Found on the body of a Southern soldier (1861-1865)

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked God for health, that I might do greater things,
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for
- but everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among men, most richly blessed.

 

“But what if pleasure and displeasure were so tied together that whoever wanted to have as much as possible of one must have as much as possible of the other — that whoever wanted to learn to “jubilate up to the heavens” would also have to be prepared for “depression unto death”?”

 

It starts with light and it ends with light, and in between there is darkness.

-Heroes

 

We’re all at war with ourselves.  That’s what it means to be human.

-Sylar in Heroes

 

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—
Success in Cirrcuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightening to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind—