The obligations of normal human kindness — chesed, as the Hebrew has it — that we all owe. But there’s a kind of vanity in thinking you can nurse the world. There’s a kind of vanity in goodness.
— Madeleine L’Engle, A Ring of Endless Light
We don’t know on any given day all that’s playing into why we can’t seem to hear from God. . . . But I do know this: it can’t be the verdict of how I’m doing with God or how he feels about me in this moment. . . .
My ability to hear God’s voice on any given day does not change my position in Christ one bit. I share this because the last thing I want to introduce into your faith is shame or doubt or some other attack because you’re not hearing clearly right now. Taking the journey toward an intimacy with God that includes conversational intimacy is a beautiful thing, full of surprises and gifts from him.
But it can also send us reeling if we are basing our relationship with God on our ability to hear from him in this moment or on this particular issue. . . .
So, if you’re not yet hearing, don’t worry. It’s okay. Keep praying. Keep listening. Notice what God might be up to other than answering the immediate question.
— John Eldredge, Walking with God, p. 48-50
It is not, Let your good works shine, but Let your light shine.
Let it be the genuine love of your hearts, taking form in true deeds, not the doing of good deeds to prove that your opinions are right. If you are thus true, your very talk about the truth will be a good work, a shining of the light that is in you. A true smile is a good work and may do much to reveal the Father who is in heaven. But the smile that is put on for the sake of looking right, or even for the sake of being right, will hardly reveal him because it is not like him.
— George MacDonald, Your Life in Christ, p. 210
We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him.
— C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“It’s not about prophecies, boy. Or magic swords, or any of that nonsense. It’s about getting it done. Always is. You’re going to be king someday. Seen a lot of kings come and go. I know what makes them. What breaks them. Save your friends and kill the dragon. Or you won’t be worth a cracked copper to Idris. Or to yourself. That’s what it’s really about . . . in the end. About you.”
— The Prophecy, by Hilari Bell
“That engine I’ve been working on will run so sweetly,” he remarked as he poured his tea.
“Like life,” she said.
— Alexander McCall Smith, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, p. 213
One reason nearly half my books are for children is the glorious fact that the minds of children are still open to the living word; in the child, nightside and sunside are not yet separated; fantasy contains truths which cannot be stated in terms of proof…. The most grownup of us is not very grownup at all… the most mature of us is pretty immature… we still have a vast amount to learn.
— Madeleine L’Engle, The Irrational Season, quoted in Glimpses of Grace, compiled by Carole F. Chase
The Law of Exposure says that your boundaries need to be made visible to others and communicated to them in relationship. We have many boundary problems because of relational fears. We are beset by fears of guilt, not being liked, loss of love, loss of connection, loss of approval, receiving anger, being known, and so on. These are all failures in love, and God’s plan is that we learn how to love….
Because of these fears, we try to have secret boundaries. We withdraw passively and quietly, instead of communicating an honest no to someone we love. We secretly resent instead of telling someone that we are angry about how they have hurt us. Often, we will privately endure the pain of someone’s irresponsibility instead of telling them how their behavior affects us and other loved ones, information that would be helpful to their soul….
An important thing to remember about boundaries is that they exist, and they will affect us, whether or not we communicate them…. If our boundaries are not communicated and exposed directly, they will be communicated indirectly or through manipulation.
— Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend, Boundaries, p. 100-101
When a relationship is over, it stings, and it’s frightening because you don’t know what lies ahead. The good news is that what happens from there on is up to you. If you want to be happy, let go of the belief that you are nothing without him and take on the attitude that you are and can be what you choose to be without him. In fact, let’s just leave him out of the sentence altogether. Now it reads: You are and can be what you choose to be. So choose to be independent. Choose to be strong. Choose to be happy.
— Dan Baker, PhD, and Cathy Greenberg, PhD, What Happy Women Know, p. 127
The scandalousness of God’s indiscriminate forgiveness hits us even harder when we are called on to imitate it. When we need to forgive, most of us, perhaps unconsciously, feel entitled to draw a circle around the scope of forgiveness. We should forgive some, maybe even most, wrongdoings, but certainly not all.
Maybe we think unintentional offenses are forgivable, and deliberate ones are not. But how would we draw the line? How intentional would the offense need to be? If the offense were truly unintentional, there would be something to be sorry about but nothing to forgive; it was just an accident. Or maybe we think small offenses are forgivable, and horrendous ones are not. But again, where would we draw the line? An offense is an offense and has as much right to be forgiven as any other, which is no right at all. No line separates offenses that should be forgiven from those that should not. There are no unforgivable sins.
— Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, p. 178-179