Memory
Maybe the most sacred function of memory is just that: to render the distinction between past, present, and future ultimately meaningless; to enable us at some level of our being to inhabit that same eternity which it is said that God himself inhabits.
- Frederick Buechner
The Great Oncologist
Is God stern and angry, or warm and kind? In a sense, He is both. He is a father who delights in His child, so He therefore disciplines His child with a rebuke (Proverbs 3:11-12). Another contemporary image is the oncologist. He is a cancer specialist who will do anything to destroy that which destroys. He will surgically cut away flesh; He will burn out cells through radiation; and He will poison them with chemotherapy. The treatment is, at times, brutal and appears cruel, but the result is profoundly life-changing and lovely. Discipline, though it often feels like a judgment that exiles and abandons us, is a labor of love that beautifies the heart through the disruptive tough of a severe mercy.
- Dan Allender, Bold Love
Holy Fire
I have felt the holy fire of love
Been burned by the holy fire of love
Made clean by the holy fire of love
- Andrew Peterson, Resurrection Letters: Vol II
Distance
What is most close, most intimate, most present, often cannot be experienced directly but only with a certain distance…. Only in retrospect do I realize that something very important has taken place. Isn’t this true of all really important events in life? When I am together with someone I love very much we seldom talk about our relationship. The relationship, in fact, is too central to be a subject of talk. But later, after we have separated and write letters, we realize how much it means to us, and we even write about it.
- Henri Nouwen, The Genesse Diary
All that ever was
What’s lost is nothing to what’s found, and all the death that ever was, set next to life, would scarcely fill a cup.
- Frederick Buechner
Passing Shadows
It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass.
- Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Don’t Be Fooled
Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it can. And just when you think it can’t get any better, it can.
- Nicholas Sparks
Remodeling
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.
- C.S. Lewis
Sources of Strength
The memories of my family outings are still a source of strength to me. I remember we’d all pile into the car – I forgot what kind it was – and drive and drive. I’m not sure where we’d go, but I think there were some trees there. The smell of something was strong as we played whatever sport we played. I remember a bigger, older guy we called “Dad”. We’d eat some stuff, or not, and then I think we went home. I guess some things never leave you.
- Jack Handey
Spending Time
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
- Annie Dillard
