Whenever you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.
Reagan won because he ran against Jimmy Carter. If he ran unopposed he would have lost.
Anyone who profits from the experience of others probably writes biographies.
He that bringeth a present findeth the door open.
What men want is not knowledge, but certainty.
Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse of earlier centuries.
There will be no lasting peace either in the heart of individuals or in social customs until death is outlawed.
Debate is masculine, conversation is feminine.
The man who suspects his own tediousness is yet to be born.
Most of us die with much of our beautiful music still in us, un-sung, un-played.
When you fall, don't get up empty handed.
If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Spam Wisdom IV
There is nothing certain, but the uncertain.
The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
It was prettily devised of Aesop, "The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise!"
Art is a form of catharsis.
For economists the real world is often a special case.
The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice.
The greatest things are accomplished by individual people, not by committees or companies.
Failure is success if we learn from it.
The body is an instrument, the mind its function, the witness and reward of its operation.
I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.
If you don't make things happen then things will happen to you.
A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy.
Anger is a great force. If you control it, it can be transmuted into a power which can move the whole world.
People who know the least always argue the most.
Action may not always bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.
The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
It was prettily devised of Aesop, "The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise!"
Art is a form of catharsis.
For economists the real world is often a special case.
The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice.
The greatest things are accomplished by individual people, not by committees or companies.
Failure is success if we learn from it.
The body is an instrument, the mind its function, the witness and reward of its operation.
I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.
If you don't make things happen then things will happen to you.
A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy.
Anger is a great force. If you control it, it can be transmuted into a power which can move the whole world.
People who know the least always argue the most.
Action may not always bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Spam Wisdom III
If there was no moral evil upon earth, there would be no physical evil.
If the young knew and the old could, there is nothing that couldn't be done.
You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be.
I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.
The wrongdoer is more unfortunate than the man wronged.
Never celebrate until you are really out of the woods. They might be behind the last tree.
The two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty.
It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake.
The tiny madman in his padded cell.
Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.
France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war.
He that is well paid is well satisfied.
Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it.
The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.
Alcohol is barren. The words a man speaks in the night of drunkenness fade like the darkness itself at the coming of day.
Those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love.
The heights charm us, but the steps do not with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.
While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one.
The older we grow the greater becomes our wonder at how much ignorance one can contain without bursting one's clothes.
If the young knew and the old could, there is nothing that couldn't be done.
You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be.
I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.
The wrongdoer is more unfortunate than the man wronged.
Never celebrate until you are really out of the woods. They might be behind the last tree.
The two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty.
It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake.
The tiny madman in his padded cell.
Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.
France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war.
He that is well paid is well satisfied.
Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it.
The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.
Alcohol is barren. The words a man speaks in the night of drunkenness fade like the darkness itself at the coming of day.
Those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love.
The heights charm us, but the steps do not with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.
While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one.
The older we grow the greater becomes our wonder at how much ignorance one can contain without bursting one's clothes.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Imagination and Hope: the same thing?
We will need imagination, which is to say, we will need hope.
--John Eldredge, Sacred Romance, 157
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Spam Wisdom II
Someone actually takes the time to put these together before hitting the "spam" button:
The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.
I see no reason why anyone would want a computer in their home.
A cynic is a man who looks at the world with a monocle in his mind's eye.
Forgiveness is the key to happiness.
It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.
Grief is light that is capable of counsel.
There's nothing colder than chemistry.
Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn.
Giving opens the way for receiving.
A crank is someone with a new idea -- until it catches on.
Fear makes men believe the worst.
I've read the last page of the Bible. It's all going to turn out all right.
Without Elvis, none of us could have made it.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Interesting Quotes from Spam
Got these all in one email this afternoon:
Do everything as in the eye of another.
A marriage is no amusement but a solemn act, and generally a sad one.
I believe in grumbling it is the politest form of fighting known.
Some couples go over their budgets very carefully every month. Others just go over them.
Happiness in the present is only shattered by comparison with the past.
The proper study of mankind is woman.
Of all ills that one endures, hope is a cheap and universal cure.
Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead.
Men are born to succeed, not to fail.
The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.
Save a thief from the gallows and he will cut your throat.
While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Heaven
I had a conversation with one of my favorite mythic friends Saturday night. Bill's a truck driver. We were over at their house eating some awesome home made pizza.
After supper, Bill and I sat down with a cup of coffee and were talking about life, faith, struggles, hope--the basic stuff that all of humanity has been dealing with since the story of Job was written. Somehow we came around to talking about heaven and "what it's going to be like."
Be honest--the first image that comes to mind when I say "Heaven" is something like this:
Yeah, me too.
But for a couple years now I've been having some strange recoiling feelings from this kind of floaty, white, angelic, spirit, wings-and-harps image. Maybe not so much recoiling as much as, it just doesn't draw me in.
I think it's because there's no precedent for it here.
I'll make a suggestion that we're already getting some foretastes of what heaven will be like, but we aren't noticing. We're distracted by the clouds and the sound of harps when we close our eyes.
If we could erase the floaty vision from our mind's eye for a few months and start with a blank slate, I wonder what that picture above would look like?
Ok, this might be weird (but that's never stopped me from writing before). What if the way God made us somehow reflects what the "perfect state" would/will look like? What if our impulses and our habits and our emotions and our activities and our dreams and our fairy tales provide us with clues as to "what heaven will be like"?
What if life itself actually gives us glimpses of heaven from time to time? What if we can actually see or taste heaven once in a while?
I'm taken with wondering about the differences between Day One and today. The original garden was unfallen; there was open communion between God and his creation. There's something about the idea of a Garden that does grab me, unlike the picture above.
In the original Garden, let's just imagine that there were only three possibilities: good, better, and best.
Good might have been a state of pure potential. Moist, dark, rich soil--but you can't eat soil. It's good in itself, simply because there is such great potential. So, seeds are sewn, and hope springs up. Hope that one day soon, there will be great food to eat.
Better might have been watching the plant grow and the flowers blossom and the fruit begin to form and the rains falling to water the garden. And as things move along, there is greater and greater hope and anticipation of the harvest and then--
Best. Eating the fruit of the matured plant. The ultimate moment in the saga. The climax of the plant's life. Hope fulfilled. The cycle completed. One thing's purpose fulfilled in the service of another.
And in the original Garden, the soil would then revert to Good. And then it would begin again.
Good, better, best. Good, better, best. But not a static state of best.
There was planting and tending and waiting and harvesting and preparing and consuming--followed by planting and tending and...You get the idea.
This kind of thing is still happening. It's never stopped. There is potential all over the place.
Unfortunately, with the fall, another state was introduced, called Bad. Not only that, but things tend to slip now from better to merely good and even further to bad. And sometimes things stay bad and never get back to good.
Think of the essential human experiences. Among them are: heaviness, loneliness, forgetfulness, isolation, falling away. Just to name a few examples. They taint our experiences every day. They are the mud on the window, making it difficult to see clearly the seasons as they pass by.
I'll suggest that if we could live a week without them, then we would be amazed at the way things look.
What if heaven is a state kind of like we're in now, but with all the "bad" elements removed. What if the earth was again loaded with unfallen potential--and the cycle of Good, Better, Best was again placed in motion.
Where would we go with all that potential--walking side by side with each other and with the Creator and his Son, the King of the Universe. Wondering, thinking, planning, building, living, reigning.
Without the heaviness, the sorrow, the forgetting.
Take a nice deep breath of this air...
Ahhhh. That's better.
Now let's say that as the centuries of Good - Better - Best pass by that we have stuff to get done, places to go, things to discover. That we set about building, developing, improving, making things generally go from Good to Better to Best. That the King of the Universe sits on a throne somewhere and we get to fellowship with each other in complete openness and intimacy. That we get to have communion with the King, directly.
Revelation 21:
I think it was John Eldredge who said to notice the direction that the New Jerusalem takes--it's coming down. It comes here.
Coincidentally, Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God as coming as well. Over and over. It's remarkable. Remember what Jesus told us to pray?
Maybe "Heaven on earth" is more than just a figure of speech.
Matthew 25:
Reminds me of Minis Tirith from Lord of the Rings.
Heaven on earth...
Anyway, that's what we were talking about last Saturday night.
The whole evening--the pizza, the coffee, the fellowship, the conversation, the daydreaming--was a "foretaste of glory divine."
After supper, Bill and I sat down with a cup of coffee and were talking about life, faith, struggles, hope--the basic stuff that all of humanity has been dealing with since the story of Job was written. Somehow we came around to talking about heaven and "what it's going to be like."
Be honest--the first image that comes to mind when I say "Heaven" is something like this:
Yeah, me too.
But for a couple years now I've been having some strange recoiling feelings from this kind of floaty, white, angelic, spirit, wings-and-harps image. Maybe not so much recoiling as much as, it just doesn't draw me in.
I think it's because there's no precedent for it here.
I'll make a suggestion that we're already getting some foretastes of what heaven will be like, but we aren't noticing. We're distracted by the clouds and the sound of harps when we close our eyes.
If we could erase the floaty vision from our mind's eye for a few months and start with a blank slate, I wonder what that picture above would look like?
Ok, this might be weird (but that's never stopped me from writing before). What if the way God made us somehow reflects what the "perfect state" would/will look like? What if our impulses and our habits and our emotions and our activities and our dreams and our fairy tales provide us with clues as to "what heaven will be like"?
What if life itself actually gives us glimpses of heaven from time to time? What if we can actually see or taste heaven once in a while?
I'm taken with wondering about the differences between Day One and today. The original garden was unfallen; there was open communion between God and his creation. There's something about the idea of a Garden that does grab me, unlike the picture above.
In the original Garden, let's just imagine that there were only three possibilities: good, better, and best.
Good might have been a state of pure potential. Moist, dark, rich soil--but you can't eat soil. It's good in itself, simply because there is such great potential. So, seeds are sewn, and hope springs up. Hope that one day soon, there will be great food to eat.
Better might have been watching the plant grow and the flowers blossom and the fruit begin to form and the rains falling to water the garden. And as things move along, there is greater and greater hope and anticipation of the harvest and then--
Best. Eating the fruit of the matured plant. The ultimate moment in the saga. The climax of the plant's life. Hope fulfilled. The cycle completed. One thing's purpose fulfilled in the service of another.
And in the original Garden, the soil would then revert to Good. And then it would begin again.
Good, better, best. Good, better, best. But not a static state of best.
There was planting and tending and waiting and harvesting and preparing and consuming--followed by planting and tending and...You get the idea.
This kind of thing is still happening. It's never stopped. There is potential all over the place.
Unfortunately, with the fall, another state was introduced, called Bad. Not only that, but things tend to slip now from better to merely good and even further to bad. And sometimes things stay bad and never get back to good.
Think of the essential human experiences. Among them are: heaviness, loneliness, forgetfulness, isolation, falling away. Just to name a few examples. They taint our experiences every day. They are the mud on the window, making it difficult to see clearly the seasons as they pass by.
I'll suggest that if we could live a week without them, then we would be amazed at the way things look.
What if heaven is a state kind of like we're in now, but with all the "bad" elements removed. What if the earth was again loaded with unfallen potential--and the cycle of Good, Better, Best was again placed in motion.
Where would we go with all that potential--walking side by side with each other and with the Creator and his Son, the King of the Universe. Wondering, thinking, planning, building, living, reigning.
Without the heaviness, the sorrow, the forgetting.
Take a nice deep breath of this air...
Ahhhh. That's better.
Now let's say that as the centuries of Good - Better - Best pass by that we have stuff to get done, places to go, things to discover. That we set about building, developing, improving, making things generally go from Good to Better to Best. That the King of the Universe sits on a throne somewhere and we get to fellowship with each other in complete openness and intimacy. That we get to have communion with the King, directly.
Revelation 21:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
I think it was John Eldredge who said to notice the direction that the New Jerusalem takes--it's coming down. It comes here.
Coincidentally, Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God as coming as well. Over and over. It's remarkable. Remember what Jesus told us to pray?
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Maybe "Heaven on earth" is more than just a figure of speech.
Matthew 25:
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right,
"Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world."
Reminds me of Minis Tirith from Lord of the Rings.
Heaven on earth...
Anyway, that's what we were talking about last Saturday night.
The whole evening--the pizza, the coffee, the fellowship, the conversation, the daydreaming--was a "foretaste of glory divine."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)