Steve Coombs

“Ideals of Asceticism, quite correctly summarizes the essence of religious asceticism as the voluntary practice of activities “for the deliverance and protection of the soul from defilement, for the increase of its powers by the discharge of its proper functions in accordance with its own conception of the moral and spiritual order, and for the consequent achievement and enjoyment of its full status.”16 Teachers who condemn asceticism correctly practiced in the contemporary context will almost certainly do more harm than good, unless they have some other method for their students that effectively lays hold on life in the Kingdom of God.”
― Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives

“Holy One,4 there is something I wanted to tell you but there have been errands to run, bills to pay, arrangements to make, meetings to attend, friends to entertain, washing to do . . . and I forget what it is I wanted to say to you, and mostly I forget what I’m about, or why. O God, don’t forget me, please, for the sake of Jesus Christ.”
― Ruth Haley Barton, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry

“Our struggling stewardship of time shows us two important things. First, we have much more time than we think. But second, we are not good at using that time well because we are often mentally compromised at the moment of choice. Enter the saving power of a schedule.”
― Justin Whitmel Earley, Made for People: Why We Drift into Loneliness and How to Fight for a Life of Friendship

“People who think that they are spiritually superior because they make a practice of a discipline such as fasting or silence or frugality are entirely missing the point. The need for extensive practice of a given discipline is an indication of our weakness, not our strength. We can even lay it down as a rule of thumb that if it is easy for us to engage in a certain discipline, we probably don’t need to practice it. The disciplines we need to practice are precisely the ones we are not “good at” and hence do not enjoy.”
― Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives