Todd Capen

“Well, I know a guy, he's from far far away
He's a songwriter, he got something to say
He says, "People in this city are too busy to hang out
This town's so spread out, no one would hear you if you shout"

Everyone's got a script to sell and someplace else they want to be
There's always a lock that would open if you could just find the key"

(It Ain't Easy Being Green)”
― Shannon McNally

“Some contemporary theology has been enamored with the heady idea of an imagined freedom that functions without any law or norm or rule of obligation. The technical name for this idea is antinomianism. This yen for freedoms other than Christ's freedom has compounded the problems in pastoral theology. Pastoral practice has at times been exceedingly ready to be guided by this antinomian tendency in theology that implies: if God loves you no matter what, then your own moral responses to God's absolute acceptance make little or no difference; God is going to love you anyway, so assert your individual interest, express yourself, do as you please, and above all do not repress any impulses. It is on the basis of this normless, egocentric relativism that much well-intended liberal pastoral practice has accommodated to naturalism, narcissism, and individualism. It has therefore steered consistently away from any notion of admonition, hoping to avoid 'guilt trips.' But ironically, guilt is more likely to be INCREASED by the lack of timely, caring admonition. For if there is no compassionate admonition, we tend to hide our guilt in ways that make it worse.”
― Thomas C. Oden, Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry

“The sixteenth-century Saint John of the Cross coined the phrase “the dark night of the soul” to refer to a time of grief, doubt, and spiritual crisis, when God seems shadowy and distant.”
― Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep

“Being saved from your sins is not about you giving to God; it’s about God giving to you.”
― Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle, Revised and Updated: Unlocking the Secret of Joyful Giving