“Somebody observed about Christopher Columbus, ‘Columbus went out not knowing where he was going; and when he got there he did not know where he was; and when he got back he did not know where he had been, and he did it all on other people’s money.’
This is the way of religion today. People do not know where they are, they do not know where they have been, they do not know why they are here, they do not know where they are going; and they do the whole thing on borrowed time, borrowed money, borrowed thinking, and then die. Science may be able to help keep you, but it cannot help you here. Science can keep you alive so that you have longer to think it over, but it will never give you any answer for the purpose of your life.”
Category Archives: Inspiration
Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Discipleship and the Individual
From The Cost of Discipleship, pages 94 through 95:
“Through the call of Jesus men become individuals. Willy-nilly, they are compelled to decide, and that decision can only be made by themselves. It is no choice of their own that makes them individuals; it is Christ who makes them individuals by calling them. Every man is called separately, and must follow along. But men are frightened of solitude, and they try to protect themselves from it by merging themselves in the society of their fellow-men and in their material environment. They become suddenly aware of their responsibilities and duties, and are loath to part with them. But all this is only a cloak to protect them from having to make a decision. They are unwilling to stand alone before Jesus and to be compelled to decide with their eyes fixed on him alone. Yet neither father norm other, neither wife nor child, neither nationality nor tradition, can protect a man at the moment of his call. It is Christ’s will that he should be thus isolated, and that he should fix his eyes solely upon him.
At the very moment of their call, men find that they have already broken with all the natural ties of life. This is not their own doing, but his who calls them. For Christ has delivered them from immediacy with the world, and brought them into immediacy with himself. We cannot follow Christ unless we are prepared to accept and affirm that break as a fait accompli. It is no arbitrary choice on the disciple’s part, but Christ himself, who compels him thus to break with his past.”
C. S. Lewis on Expectations
From Letters to Malcolm, pages 26 through 27:
“I am at this moment contemplating a new festoon. Tell me if you think it a vain subtlety. I am beginning to feel that we need a preliminary act of submission not only towards possible future afflictions but also towards possible future blessings. I know it sounds fantastic; but think it over. It seems to me that we often, almost sulkily, reject the good that God offers us because, at that moment we expected some other good. Do you know what I mean? On every level of our life–in our religious experience, in our gastronomic, erotic, aesthetic, and social experience–we are always harking back to some occasion which seemed to reach perfection, setting that up as a norm, and depreciating all other occasions by comparison. But these other occasions, I now suspect, are often full of their own other blessing, if only we would lay ourselves open to it. God shows us a new facet of the glory, and we refuse to look at it because we’re still looking for the old one. And of course we don’t get that. You can’t, at the twentieth reading, get again the experience of reading Lycidas for the first time. But what you do get can be in its own way as good. This applies especially to the devotional life. Many religious people lament that the first fervours of their conversion have died away. They think–sometimes rightly, but not, I believe, always–that their sins account for this. They may even try by pitiful efforts of will to revive what now seem to have been the golden days. But were those fervours–the operative word is those–ever intended to last?”
Sacrifice
“On the cross Jesus took responsibility for things that weren’t his fault. That’s what it means to be a leader, a husband, a father, a head.” – Mark Driscoll
Peace of mind
I have peace of mind, Lord Jesus.
Your peace sustains me and uplifts my heart and calms my soul.
My mind is focused on you with a determination set ablaze by your everlasting compassion. I trust in you, Lord.
I trust in you.
“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast,because they trust in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.” Isaiah 26:3-4
