“…was at Walgreens today. I was picking up some aspirin, and I was thinking that I wish that on such a beautiful day that I wouldn’t have such a bad headache. The cashier asked the person in front of me if she would like to donate a dollar or five to the mda. She gave a dollar, I checked out and the cashier asked if there was anything else, and I said I would donate five to the mda. It made me think of when I headed up the LAMB(least among my brethern program) with Council 6700 in Gastonia, and it reminded me of a speech I gave before the council and LAMB participants that we had no need for labels and that we should just look at it as helping our friends. Now I have realized that they are not the least among us but in fact the greatest among us because they are ever more aware of their dependence on the grace of God.”
—
Phil Jobst
I know Phil from our law school class. He went missing yesterday and this was his status update the day before. I keep praying for a miracle and that God extends grace and mercy to him and his family. Phil was one of the few people in my class who sat down with me and asked about who I am and how I got to Southern Illinois. He is one of the few people with whom I have shared my heart about what God is doing and why He led me here.
Phil, thank you for expressing your wit so brilliantly in class, for being such a genuine person, and for creating so many memorable moments for our classes. Part of me mourns that these words of appreciation might be written too late…
6:59 pm • 7 March 2012 • 1 note • View comments
“The world needs people who cannot be bought;
whose word is their bond;
who put character above wealth;
who possess opinions and a will;
who are larger than their vocations;
who do not hesitate to take chances;
who will not lose their individuality in a crowd;
who will be honest in small things as in great things;
who will make no compromise with wrong;
whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires;
who will not say they do it “because everybody else does it”;
who are true to their friends through good report and bad report, in adversity as well as in prosperity;
who do not believe that shrewdness, cunning and hardheadedness are the best qualities for winning success;
who are not afraid or ashamed to stand for the truth when it is unpopular;
who say “no” with emphasis, although the rest of the world says “yes.”
— Ted Engstrom
5:05 pm • 3 November 2011 • View comments
i carry your heart
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
- E. E. Cummings
6:38 am • 3 March 2011 • 5 notes • View comments
Pearls Before Breakfast
my friend Peter sent me this article. not that I am purporting that the statement that is about to follow is saying very much, but this is one of the very best articles I have ever read.
I think much of why this article affected me so deeply is very personal as well, since I have been wrestling with many of these questions for the last five or so years of life. More importantly, humans have been exploring these themes since the beginning of time.
In the smallest of ways, I struggle everyday to find meaning and beauty in the work I am given. I spend my whole self and my heart in order to strive towards that intersection of beauty and existence…
this article is an excellent summation of Becoming.
WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
- “Leisure” by W. H. Davies, human being.
1:33 pm • 22 February 2011 • 8 notes • View comments
