Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. (81)
~William Faulkner
Life is an invitation to pain. When a person spends all of their time attempting to avoid that pain they usually create more pain. Think of a child being born. Think of the risk the parents are taking. (Incidentally, this is sometimes cited as a reason to not have kids). Think about marriage. We all…
"Do not waste time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him." (46) ~C.S. Lewis I think this is true of every relationship…
Each one of us responds to life stressful's situations the way we do for a reason. We are hardwired as human beings—truly created and programmed to: Long for deep, lasting, ans satisfying relationships Seek, search, and live for a destiny that is greater than ourselves. At the heart of these factors are two essential questions…
“Times covetousness is forever. Time devours and devours—and gives back nothing. How terrible to face death without ever having claimed freedom, even in all its danger!” ~Frederick Nietzsche, in Irvin Yalom’s When Nietzsche Wept as quoted by Dan Allender in To Be Told Workbook.
Simply having a thought doesn't make it true. Too often we allow our thought processes to control our feelings without evaluating the truth of our thoughts. We do not have to be slaves to our thought processes. We can look at each thought and decide it's merit. When we decide they do not have merit…
Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. (17) – William James
