These are quotes which stood out to me, possibly for use in a sermon someday. Their presence here does not mean I agree with them, it merely shows that I might want to reference them later. The default view is five random selections. Use the tag list on the right to view all quotes relevant to that theme.
A retired man in Florida, in his 80s, calls his son in New York one November day. The father says to the son, "I hate to tell you, but we've got some troubles here in the house. Your mother and I can't stand each other anymore, and we're getting a divorce. I've had it! I want to live out the rest of my years in peace. I'm telling you now, so you and your sister don't go into shock later when I move out." He hangs up, and the son immediately calls his sister in the Hamptons and tells her the news. The sister says, "I'll handle this." She calls Florida and says to her father, "Don't do ANYTHING till we get there! We'll be there Wednesday night." The father agrees, "All right." He hangs up the phone and hollers to his wife, "Okay, hon, they're coming for Thanksgiving. Now, what are we going to tell them for Christmas?"
A recent article in The New York Times (7/30/03) points out the growing interest among economists and other scholars in studying sports. Particularly, they are documenting the tendency for managers and coaches to avoid risk, even when the statistics reflect a greater likelihood of success than failure. Writer David Leonhard observes, "Be it at Chicago, Duke, Harvard or the University of California at Berkeley, some of the nation's top economists, psychologists and statisticians are coming to see sports as a subject that requires their attention. Trying to understand human decision-making, they are writing papers about such choices as when to punt, or when to take out a basketball player in foul trouble . . . Their research is quickly leading to a theory that will resonate with any fans who have ever screamed for their team to go for it on fourth down: the professors say that managers, coaches and players are often far too cautious for their own good. "Teams are averse to going for all or none," said Steven J. Sherman, a psychology professor at Indiana University . . . "Teams don't want to do something that puts the game on the line right now." Leonhardt notes, "The professors say that coaches and managers often go awry when faced with a decision involving an obvious, yet ultimately sensible, risk. They seem to focus too much on the worst-case scenario: the Bonds home run, the game-ending brick, the failed fourth down." (Click here to read the full story; you may be asked to register before viewing the story.) It's worth asking ourselves as church leaders: are there times when we miss hitting "home runs" in our work because of an inordinate fear of risk?
If you want to take long walks, take long walks. If you want to hit things with a stick, hit things with a stick. But there's no excuse for combining the two and putting the results on TV. Golf is not so much a sport as an insult to lawns. - National Lampoon
Anger is the fluid that love bleeds when you cut it.
Now, I know there are some who say “Well, I hope I have given myself to the Lord, but I do not intend to give myself to any church. “Now, why not?†"Because I can be a Christian without it." Now, are you quite clear about that? You can be as good a Christian by disobedience to your Lord’s commands as by being obedient? Well, suppose everybody else did the same, suppose all Christians in the world said, “I shall not join the Church.†Why there would be no visible Church, there would be no ordinances. That would be a very bad thing, and yet, one doing it—-what is right for one is right for all—-why should not all of us do it? Then you believe that if you were to do an act which has a tendency to destroy the visible Church of God, you would be as good a Christian as if you did your best to build up that Church? I do not believe it, sir! nor do you either. You have not any such a belief; it is only a trumpery excuse for something else. There is a brick—-a very good one. What is the brick made for? To help to build a house with. It is of no use for that brick to tell you that it is just as good a brick while it is kicking about on the ground as it would be in the house. It is a good-for-nothing brick; until it is built into the wall, it is no good. So you rolling-stone Christians, I do not believe that you are answering your purpose; you are living contrary to the life which Christ would have you live, and you are much to blame for the injury you do.