Category: Quotes

A New Year

Heading into a new year I found this to be helpful:

“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:8-9

Pain Deepens Love

“It is true that in a technocratic society all human relationships are reduced to the level of things, and general apathy is spreading on an epidemic scale. It is true that in a world of high consumption, nothing is so humanizing as love, and a conscious interest in the life of others, particularly in the life of the oppressed.

“Love leaves us open to wounding and disappointment. It makes us ready to suffer. It leads us out of isolation and into a fellowship with others, with people different from ourselves, and this fellowship is always associated with suffering.

“It [love] changes the world, in so far as it overcomes the death urge which turns everything into a possession or an instrument of power.

“It is right to follow Jesus at the present time in the specific activities of love, suffering, and revolt…His suffering contains more than merely the necessary suffering of love which becomes a reality in following him, the ability of love to be wounded and disappointed. When the pains of love are accepted, they deepen love.”

– Jurgen Moltmann

Leonard Cohen On “Hallelujah”

From a fascinating article about Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah:

“This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled, but there are moments when we can transcend the dualistic system and reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that’s what I mean by ‘Hallelujah.’ That regardless of what the impossibility of the situation is, there is a moment when you open your mouth and you throw open your arms and you embrace the thing and you just say, ‘Hallelujah! Blessed is the name.'”

Consumer Quotes

Given that Advent Conspiracy is upon us, here are a couple of quotes to ponder:

“The commercialization of [Christmas] does not exemplify the secularization of society as is commonly assumed. Rather than a secular corruption of a Christian feast, the consumer activity around Christmas functions as the high holy day of a completely different religion, one centered on a consumer culture.” – Dell de Chant

And:

“The people who are rebelling meaningfully don’t buy a lot of stuff.” – David Foster Wallace

Shoveling Snow And Thoughts on Leadership Development

I’m not a huge college football fan. It’s probably 5th or 6th on the list of sports I care about. But my wife went to a big football school (USC) and so I’ve grown more interested over the years.

When it comes to the college game I lean towards the West Coast. I’d love to see Oregon win it all this year just because I am sick of hearing about the SEC.

But I’m fascinated by the Kansas State Jayhawks for two reasons:

  1. I like old guys. Their coach is an old guy. It sure seems like the K-State kids would run through a wall for old Bill. I hope to be half as relevant to college students when I’m 73.
  2. I love their senior quarterback. Collin Klein fascinates me.

He’s on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week and I was struck by several of the stories shared about him in the article.

Like this:

“When Klein was a boy, his mother and father expected him to shovel the driveway on mornings after it snowed. So he did. Neighbors driveway, too. Many years later, when he was a junior at K-State, he shared an off-campus house with four other students. In the midst of an excruciating 317-carry season, his faithful center, B.J. Finney, once had to carry him down to his bedroom in the basement after an especially violent game. But none of that had a thing to do with falling snow. Klein didn’t talk about it much, didn’t try to gain credit or leverage or anything. He just got up first and started shoveling.“

The best leaders are servants first. They are the ones shoveling the metaphorical snow…stacking chairs, etc. Again and again, as you read about Klein, the thing that stands out is that he cares more about his teammates and his team than himself (even to the detriment of his health).

I believe that one of the primary roles campus ministry plays in the development of leaders, especially future church leaders. Some people can spend their whole lives in leadership positions and never “get” the servant aspect down.

Students who figure this out between the ages of 18 and 24 will become incredible assets to any organization, especially the churches they get involved with.

We need to pray for and work to develop more Collin Kleins.

Confidence Man

In honor of the World Series, which begins tonight, some thoughts from the enigmatic Barry Zito:

Zito said something very interesting about confidence after the Giants won the pennant that helps explain what is going on here. Zito talked about how when you are young you get by with “unconscious confidence” — you have succeeded so often with the sharp skills of youth that you don’t even think about not succeeding. “When you’re going good, you don’t even know why,” he said. But when failure comes, it arrives with its companion: doubt.

“You go through a phase, and if you can get through it,” Zito said, “you come out it in a different place, where now the confidence is something that’s conscious, that’s earned. It’s the confidence to know why you’re good.”