Status Updates From A Long Obedience in the Sam...

Finding the meaning of our lives, not by probing our moods and motives in morals, but by believing and Godish whale and purposes; making a map of the faithfulness of God, not shining the rise and fall of our enthusiasm. It is out of such a reality that we acquire perseverance.

Perseverance is not the result of our determination, it is the result of Godish faithfulness. We survive in the way of Faith. Not because we have extraordinary stamina, but because God is righteous, because God sticks with us. Christian, discipleship is a process of paying more and more attention to Godish, righteousness, and the less and less attention to our own.

This was one of the best chapters on humility I have ever read. I won't soon forget this line, "We are, alternatively, rebellious runaways and whining babies." (151)

This as far from the truth as the Easter is from the West. The easiest thing in the world is to be a Christian. What is hard is to be a sinner. Being a Christian is what we were created for. The life of faith has the support of an entire creation and the resources of a magnificent redemption. The structure of this world was created by God so we can live in it easily and happily as his children.

It matters very little how much money Christians make. It makes a little difference how our culture values and rewards our work.
“Work, You’re worried fingers to the bone.”
Our Society rewards, and admires that phrase; but seen by the psalmist as a sign of weak faith and assertive pride, as if God cannot be trusted to accomplish His will, as if we could rearrange the universe by our own effort.