If we believe that God does his best for every man and woman, we must also believe that God knows every person’s needs, and will, for love’s sake, not spare one pang that may serve to purify the soul of one of his children.
– George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By, p. 21
Good librarians are natural intelligence operatives. They possess all of the skills and characteristics required for that work: curiosity, wide-ranging knowledge, good memories, organizational and analytical aptitude, and discretion.
– Marilyn Johnson, This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All, p. 6
God seems to take pleasure in working by degrees. The progress of the truth is as the permeation of leaven, or the growth of a seed.
– George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By, p. 19
A time of crisis presents a good opportunity to identify the foundation on which I construct my life. If I place my ultimate trust in financial security, or in the government’s ability to solve my problems, I will surely watch the house crumble. (And the foolish man’s house went “splat!”)
– Philip Yancey, Grace Notes, p. 94
God is against sin. While those who resist him remain one with their sin, he is against them — against their desires, their aims, their fears, and their hopes. And thus he is altogether and always for them.
– George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By, p. 17
One thing we’ve all learned along the way is that reinvention seems always to require some painful elements of rejection and tearing down. But as we change, so do all things change. To hold on tight is to miss out on opportunities for growth and movement. Letting go, stepping forward into the unknown, we discover our capacities for resilience and faith, and we begin to glimpse our unique potential, to realize it in ways we couldn’t have begun to imagine just a short time ago.
– Katrina Kenison, The Gift of an Ordinary Day, p. 172
God wants to build you a house whereof the walls shall be goodness; you want a house whereof the walls shall be comfort. But God knows that such walls cannot be built; that kind of stone crumbles away in the foolish workman’s hands.
– George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By, p. 16
It is always a relief to be reminded that my job is not to control, or judge, or change my son, but simply to help him remember, with words and touch, who he really is. Loving him this way, I am better able to find within myself the faith and patience necessary to survive his painful transformations. I know to hold a space for his beauty, even when it slips from sight. And I come a little bit closer to understanding his true essence, to remembering the goodness that resides just beneath the surface of even his very worst behavior, behavior that is usually rooted in fear and confusion and self-protection.
– Katrina Kenison, The Gift of an Ordinary Day, p. 169-170
God gave man power to thwart his will, that, by means of that same power, he might come at last to do his will in a higher kind and way than would otherwise have been possible to him.
– George MacDonald, Wisdom to Live By, p. 12
I believe in stories. The world has enough dogma. It’s stories we need more of, stories that reverence the still, small voice that sings our life. As Anthony de Mello observed, “The shortest distance between a human being and Truth is a story.” Jesus, himself, told stories about the most common things in the world: a lost sheep, a seed that falls on rocky ground, a woman who sweeps her house in search of a coin, a man whose son runs away from home.
All personal theology should begin with the words: Let me tell you a story.
– Sue Monk Kidd, Firstlight, p. 34-35
