Tuesday 31 July 2018

THE IMPACT OF SUFFERING

'For every person for whom tragedy leads to a life travelling the world to speak of Christ (and we rightly rejoice in these stories) there are others for whom tragedy means they never leave their room again, never speak again.' 
Matt Searles, Tumbling Sky: Psalm Devotions for Weary Souls, p. 9.

Friday 13 July 2018

OUR LAST BINDING COMMITMENT?

'Most Americans are free to choose or change spouses, and the middle class has at least a modicum of freedom to choose or change careers. But we can never choose or change our children. They are the last binding obligation in a culture that asks for almost no other permanent commitments at all.' 
Jennifer Senior, All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenting, p.44. 

Friday 6 July 2018

THE NEW CREATION

'...at some particular hour when we least expect it, a veil will be lifted and there will be an ending and a beginning, creation purged, healed, and renewed, afterward forever in a new and right relationship to God, who so loves the world. The clocks will stop, and we will find ourselves on the threshold of the everlasting.' 
Marilynne Robinson, The Givenness of Things, p.237. 

SIN

'I have no problem with the word "sin." I think it is one of our most brilliant evasions to have associated sin so strongly with sexuality that we can by coy about it, or narrowly obsessed with it, or we can dismiss it with as a synonym for prudery, as we go on hating and reviling. as we go on grinding the faces of the poor. We alone among the animals can sin - one of our truly notable distinctions. Or, to put it another way - we are the only creatures who are, in principle if seldom in fact, morally competent. Responsible, or at least answerable.' 
Marilynne Robinson, The Givenness of Things, p.236.