James 4: 1-10

Humility is freedom from the need to prove you are superior all the time, but egotism is a ravenous hunger in a small space—self-concerned, competitive, and distinction-hungry. Humility is infused with lovely emotions like admiration, companionship, and gratitude. ~ David Brooks, The Road to Character

Desire alone, divorced from the will, ruins peoples’ lives time after time. In our public life and even among leaders of our denominations or church organizations, time after time we see a desire that has been harbored and protected—nursed instead of deliberated—ruining the life of the person or group that they are leading. Your desires are not your friends.
~ E. James Wilder, Renovated: God, Dallas Willard, and the Church That Transforms,

Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves. ~ George Gordon Byron, 1788-1824, English Poet & Peer

God is not proud. He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him. ~ C.S Lewis, 1898-1963, British Literary Scholar

Your jealousy will last longer than the joy of those you are jealous of.
~ Amit Kalantri, 1988- , Author, Magician / Mentalist, Wealth of Words

Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it. ~ David Foster Wallace

Whatever you get paid attention for is never what you think is most important about yourself. ~ David Foster Wallace, 1962-2008, Writer / Professor

There is, however, a far more common ailment among us—and that is pride from the bottom looking up. It is manifest in so many ways, such as faultfinding, gossiping, backbiting, and murmuring, living beyond our means, envying, coveting, withholding gratitude and praise that might lift another, and being unforgiving and jealous. ~ Ezra Taft Benson, 1899-1994, Secretary of Agriculture

Reflections

People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
~ D.A. Carson, 1946- , New Testament Scholar/Theologian

James 3:10-18

It is not that I’m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.
~ Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, Theoretical Physicist

People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.
~ Carl Jung, 1875-1961, Swiss Psychiatrist

Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.
~ Martin Luther King Jr., A Knock at Midnight

The greatest temptation of our time is impatience, in its full original meaning: refusal to wait, undergo, suffer. We seem unwilling to pay the price of living with our fellows in creative and profound relationships.
~ Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, 1888-1973, The Christian Future

The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.
~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

We were created with this relational likeness and we long for relational connection because God exists in a relationship of love.
~ Richard Plass and James Cofield, co-authors of The Relational Soul

If you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?
~ T. S. Eliot