Some Favorite Quotes by Some of my Favorite People

"It may be that faith is no more and no less than a choice between the words 'it may be so' and 'I will live as if it is so.'" Thomas Schmidt, A Scandalous Beauty

"I am full of hope that when God delays in fulfilling our little thoughts, it is to leave Himself room to work out His great ones. And, more and more as time goes on, I feel that the longer He waits the more we can expect, for the deeper and wider will be the undermining, and the greater will be the band of those who will come forth free from their prison walls. When one gets hold of that vision, one can throw back in the devil's face His taunts ovfer the seemingly wasted years that lie behind us." Lillias Trotter

"Mom, Bepo (me, April) is par, par away, huh?" My 4 year old nephew Micah said to his mom when I was in India.

"I believe I saw in young Boughton's face, as we walked along, a sense of irony at having invested hope in this sad old place, and also the cost to him of relinquishing it." Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

"I miss Bepo when I don't see her everyday." Jonah Brawley, my nephew

"So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord." Hosea 6:3

"How good life must be once you got the hang of it." Walker Percy, Second Coming

"And, Lord, we thank you for our relationships." 3 year old Ava, my neice, praying at dinner one night.

"Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity...the fruit of unanswered questions. There is the laziness that pretends to dignify itself by the name of despari, and teaches us to ignore both the question and the answer." Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

"I'm prettier than you," a little girl said to my 7 year old neice Sarah. She replied, "We're all pretty."

"We shall see Him just as He is....God is greater than our heart, and knows all things." 1 John

"Send out Thy light and Thy truth, let them lead me; let them bring me to Thy holy hill, to Thy dwelling places, to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy."

"April, where's your husband?" asksed my 5 year old nephew Jayden as we were falling asleep when he was spending the night with me. "I don't have one," I said. "Yes you do..." "No, I don't." "Yes, you do.I know, he works nights!"

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart wil certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one...Wrap it careful round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it safe in the casket...of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless,airless- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable...The only place outside of heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of....love is hell."
C.S.Lewis

"Shalom: Living in peace with those around us, seeking the good of the community, nurturing justice and abundance for all....it is there, in the heart of Love incarnate, that we learn how to best live with and love our brothers and sisters." Kristyn Komarnicki, Prism

"I smiled at April and she laughed at me." 3 year old Aislyn Patrick

"...we let the crusts of our lives fall away and we rested in the deep hush of eternity." John Howard Griffin, Black Like Me

"Human beings do not readily admit desperation.When they do, the kingdom of Heaven draws near." Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew

"...because in thinking it through I realized that doing what I needed to do meant giving up what I thought I wanted. Having been set on an easy, well-marked path, I had to turn into a thicket of trees. And there, ignorant of the terrain and the extent of the forrest, I would have to keep going, taking it on faith tha I was pursuing the right course." Kathleen Norris, The Virgin of Bennington

"You have a lot of freckles," 6 year old Makenna said to me. "Yes, I do...but the ones I dislike the most are right here on my elbow," I replied. "You're still pretty," she said.

"....You are our Author, and we try to listen and set down what You say, but we suffer from faulty hearing and loss of language and we get the words wrong." Medeleine L'Engle, from Pharoah's Cross

"Whom you would change, you must first love." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Pain makes us recognize each other." Over the Rhine

"As long as a woman can be bought or sold, no woman is free." Maria Castaneda

"For in their own bodies Christians live existentially the tension of their present uncompleted existence in solidarity with an unredeemed creation..." Beker, Suffering and Hope

"Jesus inviting us to drink the cup without offering the reward we expect is the great challenge of the spiritual life. It breaks through all human calculations and expectations. It defies all our wishes to be sure in advance. It turns our hope for a predictable future upside down and pulls down our self-invented safety devices. It asks for the most radical trust in God, the same trust that made Jesus drink the cup to the bottom." Henri Nouwen, Can You Drink the Cup

"You get points for just breathing in and out." George O'Malley to Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy

"Thou art the God who workest wonders...Thy way was in the sea, and Thy paths in the mighty waters, and Thy footprints may not be known...I will remember my song in the night." Psalm 77

"Those who live in His shadow will again raise grain, and they will blossom like the vine. His renouwn will be like the wine of Lebanon....I am (GOD) like a luxuriant cypress; from me comes your fruit." Hosea 14

Proverbs 1:10-19

My child, if sinners entice you, turn your back on them! They may say, "Come and join us. Let's hide and kill someone! Just for fun, let's ambush the innocent! Let's swallow them alive, like the grave; let's swallow them whole, like those who go down to the pit of death. Think of the great things we'll get! We'll fill our houses with all the stuff we take. Come, throw in your lot with us; we'll all share the loot!" My child, don't go along with them! Stay far away from their paths. They rush to commit evil deeds. They hurry to commit murder. If a bird sees a trap being set, it knows to stay away. But these people set an ambush for themselves; they are trying to get themselves killed. Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money (or possessions); it robs them of life.

I am considering how hard it is to live differently than my culture...that life is, that I am, more than I possess. And that for everything I possess, there are others who have so much less, and perhaps were even robbed of life in order that I may have more.

It's interesting that right after these verses in Proverbs, we find this set about wisdom: (vs. 20-23)

Wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square. She calls to the crowds along the main street, to those gathered in front of the city gate: "How long, you simpletons, will you insist on being simpleminded? How long will you mockers relish your mocking? How long will fools hate knowledge? Come and listen to my counsel. I'll share my heart with you and make you wise."

What is the value of wisdom? Is it worth more than a new car, a new shirt, a new book? Most days I think I'd rather look good than be wise and have life. Today I long for wisdom, in order that where life has been stolen, I can help it be renewed.