an outlet of encouragement, explanation, and exhortation
Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.
― Winston Churchill
And Dan Carlin says this is what it is like to do a podcast, too.
from Declaration of Faith issued by the Richmond Conference of Friends in 1887:
We feel bound explicitly to avow our unshaken persuasion that all war is utterly incompatible with the plain precepts of our divine Lord and Law-giver, and the whole spirit of His Gospel, and that no plea of necessity or policy, however urgent or peculiar, can avail to release either individuals or nations from the paramount allegiance which they owe to Him who hath said, “Love your enemies.” (Matt 5:44, Luke 6:27)
In The World is not Ours to Save, Tyler Wigg-Stevenson recommends for those who follow Jesus
“enduring, kingdom-oriented activism grounded in the faithfulness of vocation instead of the anxiety of a broken world.”
“i before e… except when you run a feisty heist on a weird beige foreign neighbor.”
From a David Brooks TED talk:
How’s that?
The definition of a fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
-Winston Churchill
On February 27, 1860, Abraham Lincoln spoke at Cooper Union in New York City, delivering a rather long address that made quite an impression on the listeners, propelling him into national prominence as a serious candidate for president. It is quite the speech. One section reminded me of a hot topic in American society today:
The question recurs, what will satisfy then? Simply this: We must not only let them alone, but we must somehow convince them that we do let them alone. This, we know by experience, is no easy task. We have been so trying to convince them from the very beginning of [the Republican Party], but with no success. In all our platforms and speeches we have constantly protested our purpose to let them alone; but this has had no tendency to convince them. Alike unavailing to convince them, is the fact that they have never detected a man of us in any attempt to disturb them. These natural and apparently adequate means all failing, what will convince them? This, and this only: cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this must he done thoroughly-done in acts as well as in words. Silence will not he tolerated–we must place ourselves avowedly with them. Senator Douglas’ new sedition law must he enacted and enforced, suppressing all declarations that slavery is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our Free State constitutions. The whole atmosphere must he disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery, before they will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from us.
You can read more about the speech at Wikipedia.
On January 9, 2013 I was 20,000 days old. I decided on day 20,282 to start my 20,000 Plus project to capture a photo a day. I hope to get to day 32,768 (at least). I have been back-filling, often with some degree of estimation as dates are inexact in my recall.
The great difference between present-day Christianity and that of which we read in these letters is that to us it is primarily a performance; to them it was a real experience. We are apt to reduce the Christian religion to a code, or at best a rule of heart and life. To these men it is quite plainly the invasion of their lives by a new quality of life altogether. They do not hesitate to describe this as Christ “living in’ them. Mere moral reformation will hardly explain the transformation and the exuberant vitality of these men’s lives…We are…driven to accept their own explanation, which is that their little human lives had, through Christ, been linked up with the very Life of God.”
–J.B. Philips,
Letters to Young Churches, p. xiv
Today I was reminded or informed (I’m unclear whether I never knew or forgot) of Richard of Chichester’s poem:
Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ
For all the benefits Thou hast given me,
For all the pains and insults Thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful Redeemer, friend and brother,
May I know Thee more clearly,
Love Thee more dearly,
Follow Thee more nearly.
I’m sure I first heard these lines in and remembered them from a song from a musical. Day by Day, Godspell.
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