...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ... And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4: 8 -9
What is my only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
~Heidelberg Catechism
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
~Mary Oliver
I must consume the abundance of moments now. Days I am overwhelmed, wanting to write the music of my life in a slower tempo … yet this is the glorious dance of now.
So I shall dance in bare feet. For I am on holy ground.
~Ann Voskamp "A Holy Experience"
To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life.
~ T.S. Eliot
A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
To live is so startling, it leaves little room for other occupations.
~Emily Dickinson
I believe in God as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
~ C. S. Lewis
Remember this. When people choose to withdraw far from a fire, the fire continues to give warmth, but they grow cold. When people choose to withdraw far from light, the light continues to be bright in itself but they are in darkness. This is also the case when people withdraw from God.
~ Augustine
Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields...Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.
~ Mary Oliver
The seed is in the ground. Now may we rest in hope while darkness does its work.
~ Wendell Berry
Nothing will sustain you more potently than the power to recognize in your humdrum routine the true poetry of life.~ Sir William Osler
But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts, and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
~George Eliot's final sentence in Middlemarch
If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
~ E.B. White
Geese appear high over us, pass, and the sky closes. Abandon, as in love or sleep, holds them to their way, clear, in the ancient faith: what we need is here. And we pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye clear. What we need is here.~~ "The Wild Geese" Wendell Berry
Let it come, as it will, and don’t be afraid. God does not leave us comfortless, so let evening come.
~ Jane Kenyon from "Let Evening Come"
You can only come to the morning through the shadows.~ J.R.R. Tolkien
If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for. ~ Thomas Merton
This life therefore is not righteousness,
but growth in righteousness,
not health but healing,
not being but becoming,
not rest but exercise.
We are not yet
what we shall be,
but we are growing toward it.
The process is not finished
but it is going on.
This is not the end
but it is the road.
~Martin Luther
Ten times a day something happens to me like this - some strengthening throb of amazement - some good sweet empathic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.
~ Mary Oliver
Love isn’t a function of communication so much as Love is a function of communion.
~ Ann Voskamp
It is not your love that sustains the marriage —
but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
She has done what she could...
~Mark 14:8
What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good on this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?~ J. R. R. Tolkien from The Hobbit
wonderful poetry this morning! so true….
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I cannot tell you how blissful it is to find your beautiful offerings in my inbox…a blissful balm to my days. So much awe. Soul and spirit fortifying beauty. Thank you for your faithfulness in this way as part of the Body 😋
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Perfectly said, Emily. The gift(s) above all gifts for a person to achieve, realize, and seek in this mortal world are exactly what you describe here. It is a truism, however, that these unearned free gifts do not come easily. Perhaps it may be because what WE perceive as the more important human needs — those that attract us like blinking neon lights to the temporary, perishable worldly things that we believe will create real, lasting happiness and contentment in our lives. Sadly, it is often not until we reach middle age and even beyond when we recognize that something has been missing in our life – something of great value — not in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of our Creator-God. When we ‘taste’ the world’s human material marketplace, pleasures, and experiences and consider ourselves fully sated, the eyes of our souls are deceived, beclouded, into thinking that we have it all, that we are so fortunate, Wrong! It is only when we experience the reality that comes from looking beyond — way beyond – with the gift of seeing with the gift of the eyes of Jesus that show us in clear detail the ‘other world’ in which we live — that of immeasurable human suffering and the cumulative forever destruction of our precious environment. We then see the scales of compassion, love, and reality that Jesus uses to measure what He considers true happiness and contentment. We know then without any doubt that those to whom He has given all they need in this life and those who have nothing because they chose to go beyond His gift for their idea of what will make them happy. Sadly, with God’s Truth and His Mercy, the realization will come soon enough that they have nothing. Nothing of the joy and peace of soul that His gifts could bring.
Thank you for providing me with your timely message this day, Emily.
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Our text this morning was from I Timothy 6. So relevant here. Admonishing the rich (which most certainly we are) not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy! And to take hold of what is truly LIFE! Thank you for the reminder this day.
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