When you lament in good faith, opening yourself to God honestly and fully - no matter what you have to say - then you are beginning to clear the way for praise. You are straining toward the time when God will turn your tears into laughter. When you lament, you are asking God to create the conditions in which it will become possible for you to offer praise - conditions, it turns out, that are mainly within your own heart. - Ellen Davis, Getting Involved With God
Deception - Rev. Chris Currie | 2.22.26
Be attentive to yourself, that is, observe yourself carefully from every side. Let the eye of your soul be sleepless to guard yourself. You walk in the midst of snares. Hidden traps have been set by the enemy in many places. Therefore, observe everything, "that you may be saved like a gazelle from traps and like a bird from snares" (Proverbs 6:5). - St. Basil of Caesarea, On the Human Condition
A Story Within a Bigger Story - Dr. Cyndi Parker | 2.15.26
The great narrative, to which Christians are called to be faithful, begins at the beginning of all things and ends at the end of all things, and within the arc of it civilizations blossom and flourish, wither and perish. This would seem a great extravagance, all the beautiful children of earth lying down in a final darkness. But no, there is that wondrous love to assure us that the world is more precious than we can possibly imagine. - Marilynne Robinson, "Wondrous Love" in When I Was a Child I Read Books