^{To value one another is our greatest safety, and
to indulge in fear and contempt is our gravest error.
~ Marilynne Robinson}

Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond

But the point which drew all eyes, and, as it were, transfigured the wearer—so that both men and women, who had been familiarly acquainted with Hester Prynne, were now impressed as if they beheld her for the first time—was that SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself.
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) from The Scarlet Letter

Passion is the evil in adultery. If a man has no opportunity of living with another man’s wife, but if it is obvious for some reason that he would like to do so, and would do so if he could, he is no less guilty than if he was caught in the act.
~ Augustine of Hippo (354-430) theologian and philosopher

Matthew 5:27-30

Hyperbole is not easily dealt with. Usually, it collapses under its own weight.
~ Gwen Ifill (1955-2016) journalist

I’ll believe that when pigs fly.
~ old English phrase

I’ve looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me.
~ Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024, president, diplomat

There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.
~ Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-1997) wife and philanthropist

Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken.
~ William Shakespeare (1564-1616) playwright and poet

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
~ J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973) author and scholar

We are not sent into this world mainly to enjoy the loveliness therein, not to sit us down in passive ease; no, we were sent here for action. The soul that seeks to do the will of God with a pure heart, fervently, does not yield to the lethargy of ease.
~ Dorthea Dix (1802-1887) social reformer

Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence of it.
~ Eugene Peterson, 1932-2018

^{To value one another is our greatest safety, and
to indulge in fear and contempt is our gravest error.
~ Marilynne Robinson}

Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond

Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back—in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.
~ Frederick Buechner, 1926-2022, from Beyond Words

No shortcomings of other people cause us to be more intolerant than those which are caricatures of our own.
~ Franz Grillparzer, 1791-1872, Austrian writer & dramatist

Matthew 5:21-24

The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.
~ Charles Cayton Colton

Stop for one whole day every week, and you will remember what it means to be created in the image of God, who rested on the seventh day not from weariness but from complete freedom. The clear promise is that those who rest like God find themselves free like God, no longer slaves to the thousand compulsions that send others rushing toward their graves.
~ Barbara Brown Taylor, 1951- , Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith

Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful; it is that they are unconscious. They are default-settings. They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you’re doing. And the world will not discourage you from operating on your default-settings, because the world of men and money and power hums along quite nicely on the fuel of fear and contempt and frustration and craving and the worship of self.
~ David Foster Wallace, from This Is Water

Authentic faith leads us to treat others with unconditional seriousness and to a loving reverence for the mystery of the human personality. Authentic Christianity should lead to maturity … It should fashion whole men and women living lives of love and communion. False, manhandled religion produces the opposite effect. … it draws us away from reality and God.
~ Brennan Manning, 1934-2013. Speaker