Anne Wilson

“It only asks that we view our immediate world with fresh eyes to see how we might plant love with intention and grit.”
― Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places: Waking Up to God's Goodness Around You

“We might have a zillion reasons to be jaded about our world, but that is not the kind of person I want to be. I want to be someone who clings to the grace and the gift and the good. Rather than spend my days scanning the digital horizon for a dopamine hit of false comfort, I want to keep my ear tuned to the groanings of my place. I want to stand ready, as Christ’s ambassador in my neighborhood, wearing grace, flesh, and skinny jeans. I want to belong, just as I am, and I want to get better at loving people for every good and puzzling thing they are.”
― Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places: Waking Up to God's Goodness Around You

“Isaiah 25:8 speaks of God swallowing death forever and wiping away our tears. Only recently did I discover that some translations read, “The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces.” A more obscure translation shows God wiping tears from “every cheek.” After a lifetime of hearing, God will wipe the tears from every eye; this feels like an important discovery. We aren’t supposed to live dry-eyed. No, we were made to feel pain. It rends us from ourselves. It smudges our view, hides us away.”
― Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places: Waking Up to God's Goodness Around You

“Human beings are responsible for art, science, medicine, education, the Sistine Chapel, Handel’s Messiah, New York City, space travel, the novel, photography, and Mexican food — I mean, who doesn’t love Mexican food? But we’re also responsible for a world with 27 million slaves, blatant racism, the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the genocide in Rwanda, ISIS, the financial meltdown of 2008, pornography, global warming, the endangered-species list, and don’t even get me started on pop music. So we humans are a mixed bag. We have a great capacity — more than we know — to rule in a way that is life-giving for the people around us and the place we call home, or to rule in such a way that we exploit the earth itself and rob people of an environment where they can thrive. This was God’s risk. His venture. His experiment.”
― John Mark Comer, Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human.