Various Annotated Quotes

I love good quotes. I've just encountered quite a few quotes this weekend that have struck me as profound. There's so many of them that I felt moved to write them all down in one place so I don't forget any of them. So, think on these things with me...



"My son has seen enough death to understand the value of life."

From the movie "Traitor," which I just got the chance to re-watch for the first time since earlier this year (you may remember how I had told all of you how much I loved it).

But that's a true quote. I know in my experience, it took losing someone I really cared about to make me appreciate life even more. And by that I mean life in every sense of the word: from how life should be guarded from evil-doers, to how life should be enjoyed & soaked up while we have it. There's something about experiencing death that heightens your senses to the value of life.



"Nobody is dragged into a street fight."

Another poignant line from "Traitor." People choose their battles, especially ones as messy & violent as street fights.

I guess this quote, Green Day's song "Know Your Enemy," and Rob Bell's quote about fights & not being in one (from the Nooma video "Store") are all swimming together in my mind right now waiting for the right sermon to spring them in.



"A woman was gossiping with her friend about a man whom they hardly knew - I know none of you have ever done this. That night, she had a dream: a great hand appeared over her and pointed down on her. She was immediately seized with an overwhelming sense of guilt. The next day she went to confession. She got the old parish priest, Father O' Rourke, and she told him the whole thing. 'Is gossiping a sin?' she asked the old man. 'Was that God All Mighty's hand pointing down at me? Should I ask for your absolution? Father, have I done something wrong?' 'Yes,' Father O' Rourke answered her. 'Yes, you ignorant, badly-brought-up female. You have blamed false witness on your neighbor. You played fast and loose with his reputation, and you should be heartily ashamed.' So, the woman said she was sorry, and asked for forgiveness. 'Not so fast,' says O' Rourke. 'I want you to go home, take a pillow upon your roof, cut it open with a knife, and return here to me.' So, the woman went home: took a pillow off her bed, a knife from the drawer, went up the fire escape to her roof, and stabbed the pillow. Then she went back to the old parish priest as instructed. 'Did you cut the pillow with a knife?' he says. 'Yes, Father.' 'And what were the results?' 'Feathers,' she said. 'Feathers?' he repeated. 'Feathers; everywhere, Father.' 'Now I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out onto the wind,' 'Well,' she said, 'it can't be done. I don't know where they went. The wind took them all over.' 'And that,' said Father O' Rourke, 'is gossip!'"

From "Doubt." Don't gossip! ;)



"There are people who will go after your humanity, sister... that will tell you that the light in your heart is a weakness. Don't believe it! It's an old tactic of cruel people that kill kindness in the name of virtue. There's nothing wrong with love.

Another doozy from "Doubt." I suppose you have to see the film to understand how well this statement summarizes Father Flynn's antagonist, Sister Aloysius Beauvier.



"In Ancient Sparta, important matters were decided by who shouted loudest. Fortunately, we are not in Ancient Sparta."

Or perhaps we are, Sister Beauvier. It seems the tradition of Sparta lives on in America's Congressional tradition of the townhall meeting.

Our's was postponed from last night until another night a few weeks from now. Locals objected to the format of the meeting: a format that was designed to ensure civil dialogue & informed conversation. That format apparently has been scrapped for one that will allow people to yell & carry on to their heart's content. Unfortunate I think.



"…you have always been there. Every graduation, every big decision, every trouble, every sad and every happy day. On you, the carefree youngest brother, fell a burden a hero would beg to be spared. Sick parents, lost children, desolate wives. You are a hero. Everyone is going to make it because you are always there with your love."

From the eloquent pen of the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Speaking in a letter to her former brother-in-law, Edward, about his generosity of spirit in the midst of so many painful life experiences.

There were lots of kind gestures expressed about him this week. I haven't had a chance to hear them all. Jon Meacham, who always seems to have his finger on the pulse of matters, expressed sentiments similar to Jackie's: "Ted Kennedy (played) a role that would grow all too familiar: that of the survivor, soldiering on, assuming the burdens of his fallen brothers, always with an eye on caring for the family his father had built."

Strong words. I can't help but think how gratified I'd be if someone uttered those words about me after my life has finished. Great epitaph words there.

Favorite Quotes About Heaven

I like to collect quotes. I used to be more deliberate about filing & organizing my favorite quotes, but I still enjoy finding good ones. So, the following are quotes from song lyrics, Scriptures, movie quotes, or other sources that say something interesting about Heaven -- what the world thinks, or what I find profound.

We all wonder about Heaven. For something that seems to be such a big part of our future, the Bible spends very little of its text trying to describe Heaven. So I like to listen to how others imagine Heaven. If you have any good ones to add, leave it in the comments section.

(From the movie "The Green Mile")

Arlen Bitterbuck: Do you believe that if a man repents enough for what he done wrong, than he'll get to go back to the time that was happiest for him and live there forever? Could that be what heaven's like?

Paul Edgecomb: I just about believe that very thing.

Arlen Bitterbuck: I had a young wife when I was eighteen. We spent the summer in the mountains, made love every night. After we would talk sometimes till the sun came up, and she'd lay there, bare breasted in the fire light... that was my best time.

(From the movie "Field of Dreams")

John Kinsella: Is this heaven?

Ray Kinsella: It's Iowa.

John Kinsella: Iowa? I could have sworn this was heaven.

[John starts to walk away]

Ray Kinsella: Is there a heaven?

John Kinsella: Oh yeah. It's the place where dreams come true.

[Ray looks around, seeing his wife playing with their daughter on the porch]

Ray Kinsella: Maybe this is heaven.

(From Mercy Me's song, "I Can Only Imagine")

Surrounded by Your glory
What will my heart feel?
Will I dance for You Jesus?
Or in awe of You be still?
Will I stand in Your presence?
Or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah?
Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine.

(From Romans 8:18-25 [NIV])

¹⁸I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

(From 1st Thessalonians 4:17b)

And so we will be with the Lord forever.

(From Bebo Norman's song, "Rita")

But the finest moment that no man can measure
Is to look your Savior in the eyes

So take her tender to Your table
Take her from this killing floor
To taste the water that is forever
Let her be thirsty no more

[...]

And the God that sometimes can't be found
Will wrap Himself around you

(From Jennifer Knapp's song, "Visions")

They're looking for the peace that passes all understanding,
In a world crazed with fear.
They say that I am much too demanding
To want a better place than here.

So I'll go unto visions
The prophets gave to me
And I'll dream of Heaven
The promise in which I believe.

(From U2's song, "Where the Streets Have No Name")

I want to feel, sunlight on my face
See that dust cloud disappear without a trace
I want to take shelter from the poison rain
Where the streets have no name

(From Ephesians 3:20 [NIV])

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us

(From Revelation 21:4 [NIV])

There shall be no more pain

(From John 14:1-3 [NKJV]... my personal favorite...)

¹ “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

Taming the Ferocity of the Urgent

"If I changed the life of one person...just one person...well, okay, one is aiming pretty low. Let's say I change the lives of five thousand people...ten thousand...okay, five thousand, I'd be satisfied for starts...”
-Michael Scott

What a dunderhead.

Michael Scott is the fictitious boss of a paper company in Scranton, PA on the NBC hit television series, The Office. And I believe that in satire that quote raises awareness of the prevailing cultural value of accomplishment.

Our society values high efficiency & tangible results. We set goals for ourselves to lose 15-lbs. in a year, baptize 12 people in a year, or to read 24 books in a year. When we achieve our goals, we feel a great sense of accomplishment (or, in Sabanese, "personal self gratification"... Coach Nick Saban has this whole thing about not settling, or feeling content, or being satisfied. He strikes those words from his team's vocabulary, and doesn't let reporters get away with using them in press conferences. That man messes with my mind. Anyway...) But if we don't necessarily measure up with those values of accomplishment, in place of those values we mumble restlessly about how darn BUSY we are. So, if you haven't accomplished anything noteworthy or aren't busy trying to accomplish something noteworthy, we feel acutely insecure that other people may think that we are lazy or apathetic.

I am often reminded of reasons to be thankful for being single when I meet with a group of local ministers weekly for mutual encouragement & accountability. Each of the other men in our group are married. And inevitably, one of the other unaccomplished (relatively-speaking) young ministers will spatter off about how busy he is, how he's been neglecting his family, how he hasn't given enough time to study, prayer, or evangelism, or how little time he has in general. While some of this pressure is inherent, a lot of it is imposed by superiors.

For my readers who aren't ministers, this pressure is endlessly more frustrating on us ministers than you may realize. We ministers are often left with little sense of accomplishment because the nature of ministry isn't always necessarily results oriented. Rarely do we ministers get to figuratively lick the stamp, place it on the envelope, stick it in the mail, and be done with it. Ministry is ALWAYS on-going. There is ALWAYS more that can be done. There is ALWAYS one more phone call to make, one more step for a person you're working with to make, and one more hour to give to whatever necessary task. It is eternally endless.

And so we ministers feel immense pressure to measure up with the cultural value of accomplishment. And when we can't meet that imposed value on a day-to-day basis, we work ourselves to death & complain about it so that folks won't think us lazy. Moreover, we concern ourselves more with accomplishment-oriented tasks (e.g. sermon preparation) as opposed to other less accomplishment-oriented tasks (e.g. prayer... that is, unless it is part of a New Year's Resolution! Then we can justify it...) so that we will have something to show for our efforts.

And in the end, the urgent ebbs out the important.

I find this trend decidedly more culturally induced than Scripturally inspired. Even though Paul indeed accomplished a lot in his lifetime, we don't often hear of him setting tangible, measurable goals. This is a man who carried the Gospel from Judea perhaps as far as Spain in an age without planes, trains, or automobiles. He accomplished quite a bit. But he didn't set annual goals to plant x amount of churches in y amount of regions. Or to baptize z amount of disciples. In fact, his approach was maddeningly random. He would spend a couple weeks in one place, a few days in another place, 18 months in the next place -- the pattern wasn't driven by a spirit of accomplishment, but rather a Holy Spirit.

OK, here's where I'm going: the Scriptures witness to a faith that is emphasizes being over doing, but Christian leaders seem to get it so backwards. I often wonder how many of us professional ministers, who accomplish a lot, will try to plead with Jesus as he prophesied in the Gospel of Matthew: 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'

In Philippians 3, Paul rejects the spirit of accomplishment. He rejects the tick marks of Jewish achievement for a faith where he says that he has not really achieved anything yet.

Do not mis-hear me. This is not a blog entry that wishes to excuse sloth. Nor am I trying to do away with 5-year plans, which are noble. I'm merely pointing to the unfaithfulness of venerating these values over & above the value of becoming. As my esteemed blogging buddy pointed out a month ago, our divine purpose has a lot to do with one of the more under-rated verses of the Bible: Romans 8:29...

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

If all our energies should be harnessed in any direction, we should focus those values of accomplishment & doing toward becoming. And I believe that includes activities that may not lead to immediate accomplishments or results: whether that is Bible study, prayer, or something else. If we ministers are going to be leaders of being counter-cultural, then it begins with us embracing becoming over accomplishment.

I'm not going to pretend to be paragon of virtue about this. I certainly don't pray or study my Bible as much as I'd be proud to admit. But I have begun in this new year to let go of undue anxiety to find peace in being & becoming that which God called me to be. Part of what that means is blogging more. In and of itself, blogging is in fact a hollow pursuit. But for me, it flexes my artistic muscles of writing -- a part of me that I find incredibly deficient. It serves to make me a better communicator as I try to become as good a preacher as God would have me be.

To tame the ferocity of the urgent, and to lead our congregation into counter-cultural modes of thinking, I think it means for us that we embrace the simple. Write. Pray. Read. Rest. Meditate. Memorize Scripture. Smell the roses. There are plenty of directions for us to go in, but one direction we need to turn away from is that spirit of accomplishment. To put Neale Pryor's favorite verse into different terms...

What good would it be for a man to accomplish everything but what God set out for him to become?