Status Updates From Letters and Life: On Being ...

“Don’t let anyone or anything cut into your time with words.” - Flannery O.

“I pray this prayer, square in the face of the ravening world around me that would keep me from that mystery available through my time with words, a prayer I pray daily in the face of a world that will dupe me into believing in me every chance it will ever get.”

“Because (Flannery) knew that a story -any work of art- is a manifestation of the eternal and far more important than the artist can ever be. A work of art is a foray into the Holy of Holies; it is an approaching of the mystery she held so dear.”

“You should always be trying to write a poem you are unable to write, a poem you lack the technique, the language, the courage to achieve. Otherwise, you’re merely imitating yourself, going nowhere because that’s always easiest.” - John Berryman

“Satan failed, and next to the perfect work of art that is Christ’s work on the cross is the life of the believer lived out in belief; it is the life of the created lived out in thankfulness and in humility and in service -in creation- to our creator God. Our relationship to the public square is to live in full acknowledgment of who our Creator is...”

“...art in harmony with our creator God is art that must encompass the whole of man’s experience, its depravity and triumph both.”

“Because of the holiness of what he has created, Bezalel won’t even be allowed to see what he has been called by God to create once it has been assembled and Moses is allowed to enter the Most Holy Place....(he was) called to create...what God desired (him) to create.”

“...how can you write with any eye whatsoever on the foolishness of a world that tells you that the truth, rather than setting you free, has caged you in its self-induced and pointless angst, and that the shining forth of Christ is a myth, to be replaced by the feeble shining forth of man on himself? For whom do you write? And are you willing?”