Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond

It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another; it is one damn thing over and over.
~ Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1892-1950, Poet & Playwright

The full he empties, and the empty he fills.
~ Charles Spurgeon, 19th Cent. Pastor

Psalm 127

Illusion is needed to disguise the emptiness within.
~ Arthur Erickson, 1924-2009, Architect & Urban planner

Let him who cannot be alone beware of community…Let him who is not in community beware of being alone…Each by itself has profound pitfalls and perils. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair.
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Life Together

The same feeling of not belonging, of futility, wherever I go: I pretend interest in what matters nothing to me, I bestir myself mechanically or out of charity, without ever being caught up, without ever being somewhere. What attracts me is elsewhere, and I don’t know where that elsewhere is.
~ Emil M. Cioran, 1911-1995, Romanian Philosopher, The Trouble With Being Born

In a full heart there is room for everything, and in an empty heart there is room for nothing.
~ Antonio Porchia, 1885-1968, Author of Voces, a book of aphorisms

God’s plan was to bring into being a host of sons and daughters whom He would indwell; through whom He would live and manifest Himself; in and through whom Christ would reign supreme. We are the beneficiaries of that plan. God, in His love and grace, has made us a part of His plan. But we are not the center of it; Christ is.
~ Dan Stone, 1971- , Author, The Rest of the Gospel

Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond

We shake with joy, we shake with grief. What a time they have, these two housed as they are in the same body.
~ Mary Oliver, 1935–2019, Evidence: Poems

I walked a mile with Pleasure; She chattered all the way. But left me none the wiser For all she had to say. I walked a mile with Sorrow And ne’er a word said she; But oh, the things I learned from her When Sorrow walked with me!
~ Robert Browning, 1812-1889, English Poet & Playwright

Psalm 126

Until Christ completely cures us and this world, our happiness will be punctuated by times of great sorrow. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be predominantly happy in Christ. Being happy as the norm rather than the exception is not wishful thinking. It’s based on solid facts: God secured our eternal happiness through a cross and an empty tomb. He is with us and in us right this moment. And he tells us to be happy in him.
~ Randy Alcorn, 1954- , founder of Eternal Perspectives Ministry

The reason we don’t want to feel is that feeling exposes the tragedy of our world and the darkness of our hearts.
~ Dan Allender, The Cry of the Soul

All joy (as distinct from mere pleasure, still more amusement) emphasises our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are wantings.
~ C.S. Lewis, Letters of C.S. Lewis (Nov. 5, 1959)

May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be thwarted, may all your desires be withered into nothingness, that you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God, who is Father, Son, and Spirit.
~ Larry Hine, Spiritual Director