Quotation Marks to Mark Your Day

"We should always choose our books as God chooses our friends, just a bit beyond us, so that we have to do our level best to keep up with them. - Oswald chambers, "Shade of His Hand"

"It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. " - Oswald Chambers, Baffled to Fight Better

"Hope is lived where we come out of our shells and participate in the life others, in both joy and pain." -Juergen Moltmann

“To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light and the dark. I learn who I am& what God's grace means” –Brennan Manning

"Jesus didn't die at the hands of muggers, rapists, or thugs, but the well-scrubbed hands of the deeply religious." --Brennan Manning

"The message of God crucified should never get old. And grace—charis should never be neutered and chained up." - Preston Sprinkle

"God, you called John Bunyan to be valiant for truth: Grant that as strangers and pilgrims we may at last rejoice in your heavenly city" - Justin Holcomb

“A curse of our age is theology without subtlety; theology without nuance; theology as a club rather than a torch which illuminates” –Justin Welby

"May we always run the risk of overemphasizing grace, for it is a risk that will never be realized" –Robert Capon

"We do not know how long we will live, but this "not knowing" calls us to live every day to its full potential." - Henri Nouwen

"If ever we loved one another as God already loves us, the world would be a house of prayer." - Henri Nouwen

"Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone? Did I say words of healing? Did I love? These are the real question" - Henri Nouwen

"None of us are above reproach and none of us are beyond redemption." -Shane Claiborne

"True love is like a terminal disease, eventually because of love, you'll die to yourself and begin to live for others" - Erwin McManus

"Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it." -Andy Rooney

"And may the angel of His presence keep your heart
And when your prayers give flight to your dreams
May the only scars you see on their wings
Be the wounds of love "

In stormy times, one can expect storms to continue. In the eye of the hurricane, we ready ourselves for what is next. The pauses short, the respites, few.

Our hands are braced, our muscles flexed. We ready our hearts for whatever's new. A storm is coming. Some sort of storm is welling up, building in intensity, readying itself to test our readiness ... but that is OK.

We are where we are.

We are readier than we think.

We are not alone.

We go nowhere where none have gone before.

We are ready for the storm.

Be of good courage.

Fear not.

I don't know what it means entirely. It is a lament. It is for you to figure out and contextualize. Sometimes, just having the right song or psalm to express yourself is what you need most. It was inspired by a book the lyricist John Lang read called The Broken Wings, which many of us have loved by Kahlil Gibran.