Romans 8:23

God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him. -John Piper

[dlchen]

Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith.  Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles.  Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman.  It is well to be a gentleman, it s well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life;--these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a university; I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them; but still I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness; they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless.  Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk; then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants, the passion and the pride of man.

Cardinal John Henry Newman

[dlchen]

The bad news is that your four years of college have not made you experts on almost anything.  There is almost (if not entirely) no field that you have mastered so intensively as to be able to make significant advances in the state of human knowledge. But the good news is that if you have understood the bad news, you are an educated person.  One of the values of college education--especially a liberal college education--is to make the mind aware of the immeasurable immensity of human knowledge, and the even greater immensity of things still unknown.  One can be told that, but one cannot really appreciate it until he has researched some infinitesimal recondite point in some specialized field and has seen how many fine minds have been over that territory before--some of them two thousand years ago, and seemingly no more stupid than we are today.  Thus, the educated man or woman is not a know-it-all.  This attitude of humility before the breadth of knowledge mankind has accumulated, and before the even greater breadth of the unknown, is the beginning of wisdom.  The know-it-all has nothing to learn.

Antonin Scalia

[dlchen]

This is the thrilling romance of Orthodoxy. People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum, and safe. There never was anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy. . . . To have fallen into any of those open traps of error and exaggeration which fashion after fashion and sect after sect set along the historic path of Christendom--that would indeed have been simple. It is always simple to fall; there are an infinity of angles at which one falls, only one at which one stands. To have fallen into any one of the fads from Gnosticism to Christian Science would indeed have been obvious and tame. But to have avoided them all has been one whirling adventure; and in my vision the heavenly chariot flies thundering through the ages, the dull heresies sprawling and prostrate, the wild truth reeling but erect.

Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton

[dlchen]

But the repetition in Nature seemed sometimes to be an excited repetition, like that of an angry schoolmaster saying the same thing over and over again.  The grass seemed signaling to me with all its fingers at once; the crowded stars seemed bent upon being understood.  The sun would make me see him if he rose a thousand times.  The recurrences of the universe rose to the maddening rhythm of an incantation, and I began to see an idea. All the towering materialism which dominates the modern mind rests ultimately upon one assumption; a false assumption.  It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself it is probably dead; a piece of clockwork.  People feel that if the universe was personal it would vary; if the sun were alive it would dance. . . . [But might it] be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising[?]  His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life.  The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy.  A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life.  Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged.  They always say, 'Do it again'; and the grow-up person does it again until he is nearly dead.  For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.  But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.  It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon.  It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.  It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

[dlchen]

I am the fool of this story, and no rebel shall hurl me from my throne.  I freely confess all the idiotic ambitions of the end of the nineteenth century.  I did, like all other solemn little boys, try to be in advance of the age.  Like them I tried to be some ten minutes in advance of the truth.  And I found that I was eighteen hundred years behind it.  I did strain my voice with a painfully juvenile exaggeration in uttering my truths.  And I was punished in the fittest and funniest way, for I have kept my truths: but I have discovered, not that they were not truths, but simply that they were not mine.  When I fancied that I stood alone I was really in the ridiculous position of being backed up by all of Christendom.  It may be, Heaven forgive me, that I did try to be original; but I only succeeded in inventing all by myself an inferior copy of the existing traditions of civilized religion.  The man from the yacht thought he was the first to find England; I thought I was the first to find Europe.  I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

[dlchen]

We need other experiences, the community of experience of brothers and sisters in the church, the centuries of experience provided by our biblical ancestors.  A Christian who has David in his bones, Jeremiah in his bloodstream, Paul in his fingertips, and Christ in his heart will know how much and how little value to put on his own momentary feelings and the experience of the past week.

Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

[dlchen]

We all have different temperaments, and I can tell you right now that the best temperament for a reader to have, or to develop, is a combination of the artistic and the scientific one. The enthusiastic artist alone is apt to be too subjective in his attitude towards a book, and so a scientific coolness of judgment will temper the intuitive heat. If, however, a would-be reader is utterly devoid of passion and patience—of an artist’s passion and a scientist’s patience—he will hardly enjoy great literature.

Vladimir Nabokov, Good Readers and Good Writers

[dlchen]

Literature was born not the day when a boy crying 'wolf, wolf' came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels: literature was born on the day when a boy came crying 'wolf, wolf' and there was no wolf behind him. That the poor little fellow because he lied too often was finally eaten up by a real beast is quite incidental. But here is what is important. Between the wolf in the tall grass and the wolf in the tall story there is a shimmering go-between. That go-between, that prism, is the art of literature.

Vladimir Nabokov, Good Readers and Good Writers

[dlchen]

If you understand what holiness is, you come to see that real happiness is on the far side of holiness, not the near side.

Tim Keller

[dlchen]

True knowledge of God is born out of obedience.

John Calvin

[dlchen]

[T]o the weaned child his mother is his comfort though she has denied him comfort. It is a blessed mark of growth out of spiritual infancy when we can forgo the joys which once appeared to be essential, and can find our solace in him who denies them to us.

Charles Spurgeon

[dlchen]

https://mereorthodoxy.com/kellerism/

[dlchen]

Choruses from the Rock - T.S. Eliot (Excerpt)

The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven, The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit. O perpetual revolution of configured stars, O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons, O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying! The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. All our knowledge brings us nearer to death, But nearness to death no nearer to God. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Brings us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.

The lot of man is ceaseless labor, Or ceaseless idleness, which is still harder, Or irregular labour, which is not pleasant. I have trodden the winepress alone, and I know That it is hard to be really useful, resigning The things that men count for happiness, seeking The good deeds that lead to obscurity, accepting With equal face those that bring ignominy, The applause of all or the love of none. All men are ready to invest their money But most expect dividends. I say to you: Make perfect your will. I say: take no thought of the harvest, But only of proper sowing.

The world turns and the world changes, But one thing does not change. In all of my years, one thing does not change, However you disguise it, this thing does not change: The perpetual struggle of Good and Evil. Forgetful, you neglect your shrines and churches; The men you are in these times deride What has been done of good, you find explanations To satisfy the rational and enlightened mind. Second, you neglect and belittle the desert. The desert is not remote in southern tropics The desert is not only around the corner, The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you, The desert is in the heart of your brother. The good man is the builder, if he build what is good. I will show you the things that are not being done, And some of the things that were long ago done, That you may take heart, Make perfect your will. Let me show you the work of the humble. Listen.

In the vacant places We will build with new bricks There are hands and machines And clay for new brick And lime for new mortar Where the bricks are fallen We will build with new stone Where the beams are rotten We will build with new timbers Where the word is unspoken We will build with new speech There is work together A Church for all And a job for each Every man to his work.

What life have you, if you have not life together? There is not life that is not in community, And no community not lived in praise of GOD. Even the anchorite who meditates alone, For whom the days and nights repeat the praise of GOD, Prays for the Church, the Body of Christ incarnate. And now you live dispersed on ribbon roads, And no man knows or cares who is his neighbor Unless his neighbor makes too much disturbance, But all dash to and fro in motor cars, Familiar with the roads and settled nowhere. Nor does the family even move about together, But every son would have his motor cycle, And daughters ride away on casual pillions.

Much to cast down, much to build, much to restore; Let the work not delay, time and the arm not waste; Let the clay be dug from the pit, let the saw cut the stone, Let the fire not be quenched in the forge.

The Word of the LORD came unto me, saying: O miserable cities of designing men, O wretched generation of enlightened men, Betrayed in the mazes of your ingenuities, Sold by the proceeds of your proper inventions: I have given you hands which you turn from worship, I have given you speech, for endless palaver, I have given you my Law, and you set up commissions, I have given you lips, to express friendly sentiments, I have given you hearts, for reciprocal distrust. I have given you the power of choice, and you only alternate Between futile speculation and unconsidered action. Many are engaged in writing books and printing them, Many desire to see their names in print, Many read nothing but the race reports. Much is your reading, but not the Word of GOD, Much is your building, but not the House of GOD, Will you build me a house of plaster, with corrugated roofing, To be filled with a litter of Sunday newspapers?

And the wind shall say: “Here were decent godless people: Their only monument the asphalt road And a thousand lost golf balls.”

When the Stranger says: “What is the meaning of this city ? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?” What will you answer? “We all dwell together To make money from each other”? or “This is a community”?

Oh my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger. Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.

[cindweeb]

Every day I put faith on the line. I have never seen God. In a world where nearly everything can be weighed, explained, quantified, subjected to psychological analysis and scientific control I persist in making the center of my life a God whom no eye hath seen, nor ear heard, whose will no one can probe. That’s a risk. Every day I put hope on the line. I don’t know one thing about the future. I don’t know what the next hour will hold. There may be sickness, personal or world catastrophe. Before this day is over I may have to deal with death, pain, loss, rejection. I don’t know what the future holds for me, for those whom I love, for my nation, for this world. Still, despite my ignorance and surrounded by tinny optimists and cowardly pessimists, I say that God will accomplish his will and cheerfully persist in living in the hope that nothing will separate me from Christ’s love. Every day I put love on the line. There is nothing I am less good at than love. I am far better in competition than in love. I am far better at responding to my instincts and ambitions to get ahead and make my mark than I am at figuring out how to love another. I am schooled and trained in acquisitive skills, in getting my own way. And yet, I decide, every day, to set aside what I can do best and attempt what I do very clumsily– open myself to the frustrations and failures of loving, daring to believe that failing in love is better than succeeding in pride.

Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (via cindweeb)

[dlchen]

What is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness.

Edmund Burke

[cindweeb]

Jonas challenged me to move out of the center and stop acting as if my life were the only affected by true friendship. He, too, had a life; he, too, had his struggles; he, too, had unfulfilled needs and imperfections. As I tried to understand his life, I felt deep compassion for him. I no longer felt the need to judge him for not paying enough attention to me. I learned that once you can see another concretely, recognizing the similar struggles and unfilled needs, you can step back a bit from your own life and understand that, in true friendship, there is give and take as two people learn to dance.  I also learned afresh that friendship requires a constant willingness to forgive each other for not being Christ, and a willingness to ask Christ himself to be the true center of the relationship. When Christ does not mediate a friendship, that relationship easily becomes demanding, manipulating, and oppressive, and fails to offer the other the space to grow. True friendship requires closeness, affection, support, and mutual encouragement, but also distance, space to grow, freedom to be different, and solitude. To nurture both aspects of a relationship, we must experience a deeper and more lasting affirmation than any human relationship can offer.

Henri Nouwen, Discernment (via cindweeb)

[grace-after-the-fall]

My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or what I feel or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me.

Charles H. Spurgeon (via grace-after-the-fall)