Random Variables :: random thoughts deep and wide

To see resources

randal — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 16:19:00 GMT

www.acton.org

"... a person needs quite a lot of human virtues to be able to see resources. First of all, one needs a certain passion for theoretical thought; that is, contemplation. Consider this example from the story of Ulysses and the giant cyclops Polyphemus in Homer's Odyssey: Ulysses and his companions are imprisoned in a hole by the cyclops and are overwhelmed by fear, becoming so passive that Polyphemus is able to take and eat a few of them. Ulysses speaks to his heart-believed to be the organ that controlled passions-and asks it to help. Ulysses then becomes calm as he is freed from the debilitating fear over his personal safety, and when he regains mastery over himself, he is able to see that a nearby pole, when sharpened, may become a weapon against the giant and that the sheep can be used as instruments to get out of the hole. Ulysses can now struggle against the giant-a symbol of nature-because he sees clearly and is no longer blinded by his passions. He can see because he was able to recover his contemplative attitude."

As bad as I thought

randal — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 10:58:00 GMT

"Browning ... tells us that what won him for Christ was this, that while others tried to soothe his angry conscience, and kept urging that, really, things were not nearly so bad as he was making out, Christ looked him in the eyes and told him bluntly that he was a desperate sinner, worse, much worse, even than he realized. And that, queerly enough as you might think, the man was not discomfited but heartened. Here at last, he felt, is one who understands and knows the facts. And since His desperate diagnosis is so accurate, may not His optimism also justify itself even in me. Well does He know what is in human nature, and yet, knowing the worst, He still has confident hope." --A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent (1926)

Indeed, Christ is the ultimate realist, and the ultimate optimist, for he, and he alone, is able to change our sordid reality into glory.

Big and small

randal — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:58:00 GMT

"To get your ideas across use small words, big ideas, and short sentences." --John Henry Patterson

Maturity is

randal — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 10:30:00 GMT

Maturity is the ability to do a job whether or not you are supervised, to carry money without spending it and to bear an injustice without wanting to get even. --Ann Flanders

No nobler function

randal — Sat, 19 Jun 2004 13:17:00 GMT

I receive several quote services, and today this appeared in my inbox from one of them.

"Man has no nobler function than to defend the truth." --Ruth McKenney

I don't know the source from which the quote came, nor the context of the author, but certainly, the thought is a good expression for Christians dedicated to doing the whole will of God.