for Patty from 'teach'

"We are human and humble and of the earth, and we cannot create until we acknowledge our createdness."
-Madeleine L'Engle

"Open my ears, that I may hear,
voices of truth thou sendest clear;
and while the wave notes fall on my ear,
everything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for thee,
Ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my ears, illumine me, Spirit divine."
- Clara H. Scott (1895)

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen.

- Romans 11:33-36

God has brought us into this time;
He, and not ourselves or some dark demon.
If we are not fit to cope with that
which He has prepared for us,
we would have been utterly unfit for any
condition that we imagine for ourselves.
We are to live and wrestle in this time,
and in no other.
Let us humbly, tremblingly,
manfully look at it, and we shall not wish that
the sun could go back its ten degrees,
or that we could go back with it.
If easy times are departed, it is that the
difficult times may make us more in earnest;
that they may teach us not to depend on ourselves.
If easy belief is impossible, it is that we may learn
what belief is, and in whom it is to be placed.

-Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872)

Father of mercies, day by day
My love to You grows more and more;
Your gifts are strewn upon my way
Like sands upon the great seashore...


Father of mercies, may our hearts
Never overlook your bounteous care;
But what our Father's hand imparts
Still own in grateful praise and prayer...

- F.W. Faber

For I do not seek to understand
that I may believe,
but I believe in order to understand.
For this I believe - that unless I believe,
I should not understand.
- St. Anselm

When we walk to the edge of all the light we have
and take the step into the darkness of the unknown,
we must believe that one of two things will happen.
There will be something solid for us to stand on
or we will be taught to fly.

- Patrick Overton

"Let the summer showers of God's love soak the seeds of your right answers so that they blossom into right actions and watch the landscape begin to change."

- Barbara Brown Taylor, The Preaching Life

So the man yelled "God, speak to me."
And, the thunder rolled across the sky.

But, the man did not listen.

The man looked around and said, "God let me see you."
And a star shined brightly.

But the man did not notice.

And, the man shouted, "God show me a miracle!"
And, a life was born.

But, the man did not know.

So, the man cried out in despair,
"Touch me God, and let me know you are here!"

Whereupon, God reached down and touched the man.

But, the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.

Don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't
packaged the way that you expect.

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible
qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been
clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,
so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God,
they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him..."
-Romans 1:20-21