Run!

     The sun is the center of our physical solar system, but the earth is the center of the spiritual cosmos - which means that to be a human, to be a moral being alive in time and space, is to exist spiritually in the center phase of the most important race happening right now. We dare not slack off into the shadows of lethargy. All eyes are fixed on you and me. The spiritual adrenaline is pumping. Forget for a moment your virtual crowd of online followers and imagine all of your spiritual ancestors in the faith watching in the bleachers. Their times are legend; your time is now. Whether you were expecting it or not, the baton of faith, passed down from generation to generation, has now been slapped into your hands.
     Run!
     Run with diligence. Cast off everything that distracts, unfetter your life from the chains that trip your ankles, and bolt with freedom and joy as you follow Christ. It is here, now, that the spirit works tirelessly. It is here, now, that the work of Christ proves triumphant in the world. It is here, now, that the powers and principalities, defeated at Calvary, are being flaunted in defeat by the unity of the church. The race is on - our race! We have one shot, one event - one life. We must shake off every sinful habit and every ounce of unnecessary distraction. We must run.

- Tony Reinke, 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You

Parenting

Instruction, and advice, and commands will profit little, unless they are backed up by the pattern of your own life. Your children will never believe you are in earnest, and really wish them to obey you, so long as your actions contradict your counsel. Archbishop Tillotson made a wise remark when he said, 'To give children good instruction, and a bad example, is but beckoning to them with the head to show them the way to heaven, while we take them by the hand and lead them in the way to hell.'

J. C. Ryle

the martial view

"It has become, in my view, a bit too trendy to regard the acceptance of death as something tantamount to intrinsic dignity. Of course I agree with he preacher of Ecclesiastes that there is a time to love and a time to die - and when my skein runs out I hope to face the end calmly and in my own way. For most situations, however, I prefer the more martial view that death is the ultimate enemy - and I find nothing reproachable in those who rage mightily against the dying of the light."

- Stephen Jay Gould

Holy Children

"Let those parents that desire Holy Children learn to make them possessors of Heaven and Earth betimes. To remove silly objects from before them, to magnify nothing but what is great indeed, and to talk of God to them, and of His works and ways before they can either speak or go."

- Traherne

a human wish

"'You were merely wishing for the end of pain,' the monster said. 'Your own pain. An end to how it isolated you. It is the most human wish of all.'"

- A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Wings

"Wings are an illusive fallacy. Some may possess them, but they are not very visible, and as for me, there isn't the least sign of a feather. Don't imagine that by crossing the sea and landing on a foreign shore and learning a foreign lingo you 'burst the bonds of outer sin and hatch yourself a cherubim.'"

"We profess to be strangers and pilgrims, seeking after a country of our own, yet we settle down in the most un-stranger-like fashion, exactly as if we were quite at home and meant to stay as long as we could. I don't wonder apostolic miracles have died. Apostolic living certainly has."

"Satan is so much more in earnest than we are -- he buys up the opportunity while we are wondering how much it will cost."

- Amy Carmichael, quoted from A Chance to Die by Elisabeth Elliot

My sweetheart