Quote of the Day

"Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods" 

- C.S. Lewis

Actually, Complaining Does Help . . .

I couple of years back, I received an email from a close (married) relative which said, "One of us has come down with a terminal illness which typically shortens a person's lifespan. We won't go into more detail as complaining never helps anyone and we are trusting in the Lord for healing."

This may be THE MOST IDIOTIC EMAIL I HAVE EVER RECEIVED.

First of all, people who love you want to know what is going on with you - the good, bad and ugly. Secondly, sharing your struggles has the power to give those behind you strength. For centuries people have found comfort in the book of Job, Psalms and Lamentations (that's right, the Bible has a book called "Lamentations" in it). The reason people find comfort is that they discover that they are not alone in their sufferings - they are not the only ones who doubt and question.

One of the most devastating aspects of suffering is the feeling of isolation. When you can connect with a person who says, "I have traveled this road and I know how you feel", there is great comfort and healing there.

In an ironic twist, those who keep a "stiff upper lip" and refuse to share honestly about their struggles may be the most selfish of all - no one benefits from their story because they arrogantly and selfishly refuse to share it. And don't get me started on people who believe we should always be happy for the good of society - that way lies madness.

Here are a couple of stories that came my way recently that illustrate the point:

Don't Carpe Diem

To The Mother With Only One Child

Quote of the Day

"We shall be judged more by what we do at home than what we preach abroad" 

- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

FOOOOORK!

Silo Solo

by Joyce Sutphen

My father climbs into the silo.
He has come, rung by rung,
up the wooden trail that scales
that tall belly of cement.


It's winter, twenty below zero,
He can hear the wind overhead.
The silage beneath his boots
is so frozen it has no smell.


My father takes up a pick-ax
and chops away a layer of silage.
He works neatly, counter-clockwise
under a yellow light,


then lifts the chunks with a pitchfork
and throws them down the chute.
They break as they fall
and rattle far below.


His breath comes out in clouds,
his fingers begin to ache, but
he skims off another layer
where the frost is forming


and begins to sing, "You are my
sunshine, my only sunshine."

Quote of the Day

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." 

- Albert Einstein

I'm Gonna Show You

Inspiration: Powerful Beyond Measure (how great are you?) from Ben McDonald on Vimeo.

Quantum Leap: How John Polkinghorne Found God in Science and Religion

There are few books that you read and can remember clear as day 20 years later. Dr. Karl Giberson's Worlds Apart: The Unholy War Between Religion and Science is one of those books for me. So when I found out that Giberson was working with my personal friend and hero Dr. Dean Nelson on a book about world-renowned physicist-turned-Anglican-priest Sir John Polkinghorne, I marked the release date on my calendar. As anyone who has read Nelson or Giberson's work would expect, it is wonderful.

This is a great book for those, like me, who sometimes feel as if they are caught between the scientific ignorance of the faith community and the philosophical arrogance of the scientific community. Quantum Leap examines not only the spiritual and scientific thoughts and beliefs of Sir John Polkinghorne but the man himself as well.

In typical Nelson / Giberson fashion, the book takes head on the hard questions of the existence of God, the purpose of prayer, miracles and the afterlife while leaving plenty of room for detractors such as Stephen Weinberg, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, and E. O. Wilson.

It is a great read for anyone interested in approaching the issue of a scientifically informed spirituality and/or a spiritually informed view of science.

This book just might make you smarter. Highly recommended!

Quote of the Day

"If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much."

- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Why Do I Feel Like This is My Future 5 Years from Now?

http://youtu.be/uU6U-8LP1DY

Quote of the Day

No one can settle how much we ought to give. The safe rule is to give more than we can spare

- CS Lewis

I Love This Kind Of Stuff

 http://youtu.be/IJymVGJ3Eag

Quote of the Day

‎"A right delayed is a right denied." 

~Martin Luther King Jr.

Quote of the Day

"Kindness is loving people more than they deserve." 


- Joseph Joubert

The Fight

by Gregory Djanikian

It was over a girl,
One boy had spoken to her,
Had asked her out, the other
Had been feeling with her
The twitches of something serious.
It was a misunderstanding,
Something that might have been fixed,
Talked out or around,
But the whole school had turned out
To watch them settle it.
It was too late for talk,
It was no longer just their fight,
Something irrelevant and impure
Had entered it, honor, looking
More upright than the other,
Things which had nothing to do
With the girl, or desire,
Or what she had whispered to one of them
One night in a car.
So they faced each other,
Bringing their anger up
By saying what finally did not matter
But loudly enough so their bodies believed it.
There was a sudden coming together,
There were fists flailing
While everybody, hundreds, watched.
One was cut above the eye, the other's
Knuckles were bloodied against teeth.
It lasted half a minute until
One of them pulled back and said
Something like "This is stupid"
And the other dropped his fists
And watched him walk away