The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal,… But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.
C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory
There is nothing in a Holy Spirit-conceived life that exempts that life from the common lot of humanity. It didn’t skip anything in Jesus, “who in every respect has been tested as we are,” and it doesn’t skip anything in us.
Eugene Peterson
John Mark McMillan has become one of my favorite artists over the past year or so. You probably already know his song ‘How He Loves’ - covered by David Crowder. It is a great song but many of his others songs are just as powerful and moving. He recently re-released his album Medicine. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Buy it here.
He is “for us,” with all the infinity of his being; with all the omnipotence of his love; with all the infallibility of his wisdom; arrayed in all his divine attributes, he is “for us,”—eternally and immutably “for us”; “for us” when yon blue skies shall be rolled up like a worn out vesture; “for us” throughout eternity. And because he is “for us,” the voice of prayer will always ensure his help.
Charles Spurgeon, Evening July 13
I’m loving Andrew Peterson’s “Dancing In the Minefields” song on the joys and trials of marriage.
From his new album Counting Stars (releasing July 27).
[HT: Justin Taylor]
What makes the temptation to power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life.
Henri Nouwen, ‘In the Name of Jesus’
Incredible time of prayer at the new St.John campus
