Day 12 – December 2013

Our need to give is every bit as desperate as the poor’s need to receive. –Philip Yancey

I came to the Table in the middle of the night because I knew it was an absolute and objective reality over my haunting & howling battle with the mental & emotional voices of darkness.

It is a sanctuary that stills the insanity of my soul.

The wisdom of Wizards and the witchcraft of Warlocks have descended. The owls are hooting and the coyotes are howling…3 am

Being an Abbott in the desolate places is not a normal life.  -from a Desert Father of the present day.

An ascetic (austere) life is an aesthetic (beauty) life.

• Faith is a new Orientation
• Hope is a new Imagination
• Love is a new Motivation

Any fool can have a trophy wife. It takes a real man to have a trophy marriage. -Diane Sollee

Internal monologue amplifies personal drama. To the outsider, neither exists. That’s why our ledge-walking rarely attracts a crowd. What’s in your head is real, no doubt about it, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us can see the resistance you are battling (or care about it).  – Seth Godin

People need a Church but they want a Stadium.

Grow weary from ministry, but don’t grow weary of ministry. Jesus took a lot of naps, but he never got tired of caring for people. –Driscoll

Coming to the “sewing” Table with my tattered, torn and thread bearing clothes. Although my attire is unworthy it’s all I have to wear. I’m not looking for a new set of clothes, but to be re threaded and sown back up.  It’s not a needle pulling thread, it’s a nail piercing bread.

The miracle of the virgin birth is not the virgin giving birth, but God creating a New Man who gives birth to a New Humanity.  He is the only begotten of the Father and the firstborn of many sons and daughters.

“Who am I to judge?” -Pope Francis 

For many in our times it only means who am I to judge others. However, it also means who am I to judge God…practically, judge his Word. If God has already spoken and judged something plainly then who are you to say God is wrong?  Who am I to judge what the Judge has already judged?  We have become defenders of the creature rather than worshipers of the Creator.

In order to love what is good you must hate what is evil.  Don’t hate the Who, but you must hate the What because it is actually the What not the you that is hating the Who.   -the patriarch of Whoville

“Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth TO THOSE WITH WHOM GOD IS PLEASED.”  Luke 2:14  Curious how many people leave out the last part, as though he were pleased with all.  What is required to please God? It doesn’t take much, but it requires all.

“Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to. It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was. My father couldn’t walk through a door without colonizing the space. -Ian Morgan Cron