Reflections
You don’t have to be a sociologist to know that we live in a culture of asphyxiating ‘performancism.’ Performancism is the mindset that equates our identity and value directly with our performance. It casts achievements not as something we do or don’t do but as something we are (or aren’t).
~ Op-Ed in The Washington Post (10-17-2013)
Theology is like a map. Merely learning and thinking about the Christian doctrines, if you stop there, is less real and less exciting than the sort of thing my friend got in the desert. Doctrines are not God: they are only a kind of map. But that map is based on the experience of hundreds of people who really were in touch with God–experiences compared with which many thrills of pious feelings you and I are likely to get on our own are very elementary and very confused. And secondly, if you want to get any further you must use the map.
~ C.S. Lewis, 1898-1963, Professor/Author
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing,
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing.
~ Martin Luther, 1483-1546, Pastor/Theologian