Reflections

There is a universal need to exercise some kind of power, or to create for one’s self the appearance of some power, if only temporarily, in the form of intoxication.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, 19th Century German Philosopher

It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.
~ Epicurus, 341-270 BC, Greek Philosopher

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.
~Robert Jastrow (1925-2008), leading astronomer and planetary physicist

Courage, curiosity, kindness … I like people who stay with the process, not stupidly or with a kind of utter stubbornness, but maybe something akin to it with this notion of commitment. I think a lot of people live dull lives, dull meaning, small. They do little with their life other than sustain themselves and perhaps a few people around them. I think of that as insipid. We know life is dangerous, and for the people who are trying to live a safe life period, well, I’m all for safety, But if all you have in your life is a commitment to that small, safe, insipid life, already, I don’t want to be like you. And I think that sense of those who live a small life often live with a level of–I don’t know how to put it more kindly than this– a sort of dogmatic presumption bound into self-righteousness, that they’re right, and the people they don’t agree with, they’re wrong, and whether that’s over a particular view on sanctification for instance, they know what’s right and they are right, and everybody else is pretty much wrong. That is an insipid, self-righteous life, I just want to go ehh.
~ Dan Allender, Psychologist and Author

This Sunday’s readings: Psalm 33:6-22

Reflections

…creating our own version of god means we can tame it. A created thing can only do what we allow it to do unlike the true God who isn’t manageable. He can’t be put on a shelf or told to hush. We want to worship what we can control.
~ Jackie Hill Perry, Contemporary writer and hip-hop artist

The promise of the new covenant is not that we’re liberated from God’s word, but that we’re liberated to keep it. … Our desires are to mature, so that our souls, brought to life by the Spirit, move us to pursue real treasure and eternal glory with passion.
~ Peter Leithart, The Ten Commandments: A Guide to the Perfect Law of Liberty

The list of blessings and curses in the Torah reminds us that we must choose each and every day to be active partners with God working to repair the world.
~ Abraham Heschel, Rabbi and leading 20th Century Jewish Theologian

Nations pass away, thrones crumble, but the church remains. What is then the power which has protected this church, thus assailed by the furious billows of rage and the hostility of ages? Whose is the arm which, for eighteen hundred years, has protected the church from so many storms which have threatened to engulf it? … I marvel that whereas the ambitious dreams of myself, Caesar, and Alexander should have vanished into thin air, a Judean peasant—Jesus— should be able to stretch His hands across the centuries and control the destinies of men and nations.
~ Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), During his exile on the island of St. Helena

This Sunday’s readings: Deuteronomy 29:9-20