D.E.B.H.

Garment of destiny-Martin Luther King Jr

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:12:58 -0400

We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is structured.

"The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons with God..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:01:58 -0400

““The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons with God himself at the very heart of this community as its prime Sustainer and most glorious Inhabitant.””

- Richard Foster quoting Dallas Willard

on the death of a friend

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:01:39 -0400

If death my friend and me divide,
Thou dost not, Lord, my sorrow chide,
Or frown my tears to see;
Restrained from passionate excess,
Thou bidst me mourn in calm distress
For them that rest in Thee.I feel a strong immortal hope,
Which bears my mournful spirit up
Beneath its mountain load;
Redeemed from death, and grief, and pain,
I soon shall find my friend again
Within the arms of God.Pass a few fleeting moments more
And death the blessing shall restore
Which death has snatched away;
For me thou wilt the summons send,
And give me back my parted friend
In that eternal day.

John Green's tumblr: The Commencement Address

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:01:53 -0400

John Green's tumblr: The Commencement Address:

fishingboatproceeds:

Some people have asked to read the commencement address I delivered this morning to the 2013 graduates of Butler University. So here it is.

My own commencement speaker, who shall remain nameless, began with a lame joke about how these speeches only come in two varieties: Short and bad. This…

"Dallas also used to say that “God will certainly let everyone into heaven that can possibly..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:01:58 -0400

“Dallas also used to say that “God will certainly let everyone into heaven that can possibly stand it.” This is another one of those statements that becomes more daunting and frightening and wonderful the more you think about it.”

- John Ortberg on Dallas Willard

"Among countless other ideas, Dallas thought about the nature of heaven in ways that linger. Our..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:57:15 -0400

“Among countless other ideas, Dallas thought about the nature of heaven in ways that linger. Our destiny, he used to say, is to be part of a tremendously creative team effort, under unimaginably splendid leadership, on an inconceivably vast plane of activity, with ever more comprehensive cycles of productivity and enjoyment. This is what “eye hath not see, nor ear hath heard” in the prophetic vision. Its worth a few dozen read-throughs.”

- John Ortberg on Dallas Willard

Excerpt from A Servant to Servants by Robert Frost

Sun, 05 May 2013 12:01:52 -0400

But I don’t count on it as much as Len.
He looks on the bright side of everything,
Including me. He thinks I’ll be all right
With doctoring. But it’s not medicine—
Lowe is the only doctor’s dared to say so—
It’s rest I want—there, I have said it out—
From cooking meals for hungry hired men
And washing dishes after them—from doing
Things over and over that just won’t stay done.
By good rights I ought not to have so much
Put on me, but there seems no other way.
Len says one steady pull more ought to do it.
He says the best way out is always through.
And I agree to that, or in so far
As that I can see no way out but through—

"Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn..."

Sun, 05 May 2013 02:34:51 -0400

“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, no matter how it turns out.”

- Vaclav Havel

Prayer :: Abraham Joshua Heschel

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:02:00 -0400

To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain a sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin in all attainments. Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. It is all we can offer in return for the mystery by which we live….

Amidst the meditation of mountains, the humility of flowers wiser than all alphabets—clouds that die constantly for the sake of God’s glory—we are hating, hunting, hurting. Suddenly we feel ashamed of our clashes and complaints in the face of the tacit glory in nature.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and..."

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 11:00:07 -0400

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, his eyes are closed.”

- Albert Einstein

Wendell Berry on soul

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:01:55 -0400

the formula given in Genesis 2.7 is not man = body + soul; the formula there is soul = dust + breath. According to this verse, God did not make a body and put a soul into it, like a letter into an envelope. He formed man of dust; then, by breathing His breath into it, he made the dust live. The dust, formed as man and made to live, did not embody a soul; it became a soul. Soul here refers to the whole creature. Humanity is thus presented to us, in Adam, not as a creature of two discrete parts temporarily glued together but as a single mystery.

"The best prayer is to rest in the goodness of God, knowing that that goodness can reach down to our..."

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:02:01 -0400

“The best prayer is to rest in the goodness of God, knowing that that goodness can reach down to our lowest depths of need.”

- Julian of Norwich

a bit of Mary Oliver

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:01:35 -0400

Another morning and I wake with thirst for the goodness I do not have. I walk out to the pond and all the way God has given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord, I was never a quick scholar but sulked and hunched over my books past the hour and the bell; grant me, in your mercy, a little more time. Love for the earth and love for you are having such a long conversation in my heart. Who knows what will finally happen or where I will be sent, yet already I have given a great many things away, expecting to be told to pack nothing, except the prayers which, with this thirst, I am slowly learning.

A Trinitarian Prayer

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:01:56 -0400

In the name of the Holy Formless One,

In the name of the Son, who took Form,

In the name of the Spirit between these Two,

All things are made one.

God for us, we call You Father

God alongside us, we call You Jesus,

God within us, we call You Holy Spirit.

But these are only names.

You are the Eternal Mystery that enables

and holds and enlivens all things

—even us and even me.

Every name falls short of Your goodness and Your greatness.

We can only see who You are in what is.

In the beginning, now, and always.

Amen

"It is not allowable to love the Creation according to the purposes one has for it, any more than it..."

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 12:01:57 -0400

“It is not allowable to love the Creation according to the purposes one has for it, any more than it is allowable to love one’s neighbor in order to borrow his tools.”

- Wendell Berry

Naomi Shihab Nye

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:01:41 -0400

It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.
With sadness there is something to rub against,
a wound to tend with lotion and cloth.
When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to
pick up,
something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs
or change.

But happiness floats.
It doesn’t need you to hold it down.
It doesn’t need anything.
Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,
and disappears when it wants to.
You are happy either way.
Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house
and now live over a quarry of noise and dust
cannot make you unhappy.
Everything has a life of its own,
it too could wake up filled with possibiliites
of coffee cake and ripe peaches,
and love even the floor which needs to be swept,
the soiled linens and scratched records …

Since there is no place large enough
to contain so much happiness,
you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you
into everything you touch. You are not responsible.
You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit
for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,
and in that way, be known.

"This side of the resurrection In the brokenness, defeat and sorrow, Is where lie all the deep..."

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 12:01:42 -0400

“

This side of the resurrection
In the brokenness, defeat and sorrow,
Is where lie all the deep lessons of my life.

Nothing wants to be broken,
And yet everything must be broken.
To never break is to lie stagnant and eventuallly die.

Things break.

I break now and again.
Picking up the pieces can be an act
Of profound faith.

”

- Tobin Marsh

"God’s compasssion is total, absolute, unconditional, without reservation. It is the..."

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:02:08 -0400

“God’s compasssion is total, absolute, unconditional, without reservation. It is the compassion of the one who keeps going to the most forgotten corners of the world, and who cannot rest as long as he knows that there are still human beings with tears in their eyes. It is the compassion of a God who does not merely act as a servant, but whose servanthood is a direct expression of his divinity.”

- Henri Nouwen

beingblog: “Spirituality doesn’t look like sitting down and...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:01:49 -0400

beingblog:

“Spirituality doesn’t look like sitting down and meditating. Spirituality looks like folding the towels in a sweet way and talking kindly to the people in the family even though you’ve had a long day.

It’s enfolded into the act of parenting. You fold the towels in a sweet way. It doesn’t take extra time.”

~Sylvia Boorstein from What We Nurture

Photo by Fabiana Zonca / Flickr, cc by-nc-sa 2.0

Johnny Cash- Have Thine own Way Lord. - YouTube

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:56:40 -0400

Johnny Cash- Have Thine own Way Lord. - YouTube:

Prayer of the day with the help of the great JC ; )