And there's the fallacy of existence: the idea that one could be happy forever and age with a given situation or series of accomplishments.
Sometimes, too often, I don't want to muster the energy. Stress and anxiety seem easier.
You, who were made by Love, made for love-- be still and know and watch love come down.
Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I've ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing. . . . Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away.
Simplicity is never a matter of circumstances; simplicity is a matter of focus. So in the midst of educating and parenting our children, we can't necessarily go ahead and make everything fit into neat, controllable, simple schedules. But the point is, simplicity is: how do we keep our eyes fixed and focused on Christ, no matter where we are?
That which tears open our souls, those holes that splatter our sight, may actually become the thin, open places to see through the mess of this place to the heart-aching beauty beyond. To Him. To the God whom we endlessly crave.
At the last, this is what will determine a fulfilling, meaningful life, a life that, behind all the facades, every one of us longs to live: gratitude for the blessings that expresses itself by becoming the blessing.
Sometimes you have to listen to other people, and see what the audiences want. That's what entertaining is about.
The atheist does not say 'there is no God,' but he says 'I know not what you mean by God; I am without idea of God'; the word 'God' is to me a sound conveying no clear or distinct affirmation. . . . The Bible God I deny; the Christian God I disbelieve in; but I am not rash enough to say there is no God as long as you tell me you are unprepared to define God to me.
I will never forget Oprah's [Winfrey] major contribution to my success by having me perform on her show (March '91) and introducing me as, "the voice that brought her out of the shower!"
I am suspicious of both facility and speed.