Two men with two good thoughts.

H. Richard niehbuhr

[wrote protestant liberalism as] A God without wrath, who brought men without sin, into a kingdom without judgement, through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross

Richard Foster

it is time we awaken to the fact, that conformity to a sick society is to be sick.

"Fun is the yardstick that boys use to make decisions. When you become a man, you do things because they’re right and good, and because your desire to serve others supersedes your own comfort."

The AOM blog

When Alvah Roebuck was asked about selling his rights to the Sears Roebuck Corporation, and about Sears going on to be extremely wealthy and successful, Roebuck is quoted for saying: " He's dead. Me, I've never felt better."

Eugene Peterson, in a forward written to the book of Colossians, called the life Of Jesus--teaching, crucifixion, and resurrection--a Most remarkable greatness.

Karl Barth

" Some of you have perhaps heard it said that in the last forty years I have written a great many books and some of them have been very fat ones. let me, however, frankly and openly and even gladly confess that the four words 'my grace is enough' say much more and say it better than the whole pile of paper with which I have surrounded myself. When my books have long since been superseded and forgotten, then these words will still shine on in their eternal richness."

Karl Barth (while preaching in aprison)

Four Word Letter (pt.2 mewithoutyou)

I wrote a four word letter,
With post-script in crooked lines,
"Tho I'd lived I'd never been alive."
You know who I am - you held my hand
As I traveled blind
Listening to a whispering in my ear,
Soft but getting stronger,
Telling me the only purpose of my being here
Is to stay a bit longer.

Stealing a bicycle chain,
As the handlebars crashed to the ground,
The back wheel detached from the frame,
It kept rolling, yeah, but aimlessly drifting around.

Oh, doubters, let's go down,
Lets go down - won't you come on down?
Oh doubters, lets go down-
Down, to the river to pray?

"But I'm so small I can barely be seen - how can this great love be inside of me?"
Look at your eyes - they're small in size, but they see enormous things.

Wearing black canvas slippers
In our frog-on-a-lily-pad pose
We sewed buttons and zippers
To chinese pink silk
And olive night clothes
If you can someday stop by
Somehow we'll show you the pictures and fix you some tea
(see, my dad's getting a bit older now and just unimaginably lonely).

Oh, pretenders, let's go down
Lets go down- won't you come on down?
Oh, pretenders
Lets go down-
Down to the river and pray?

"Oh but I'm so afraid, and I'm set in my ways"
But he'll make the rabbits and rocks sing his praise.
"But I'm too tired, I won't last long."
No, he'll use the weak to overcome the strong!

Oh, Amanda, let's go down
Lets go down- won't you come on down?
Mama, Nana, lets go down, down in the dirt by the river to pray?

You struke the match - why not be utterly changed by fire?
To sacrifice the shadow and the mist
Of a brief life you never much liked -

So if you'd care to come along we're gonna curb all our never-ending,
clever complaining (as who's ever heard of a singer criticized by his song?)
We hunger, but though all that we eat brings

us little relief we don't know quite what else to do,
We have all our beliefs but we don't want our beliefs,
God of peace, we want you.

Beautiful things my friends experienced lately.

the rush of wind all around me.

my parents hugging after making peace.

a baptism.

true selfless love through a friendship.

thanksgiving and laughing with my family.

seeing my friends share their last moments in prayer before they made their vows to each other.

here's like 3 seconds of harmony in this one song from hair, and i was blasting it in my apartment today. it's amazing. it makes me feel alive.

the weather is getting colder and it feels beautiful when its cold out and im in a hat and gloves and a coat but i'm not cold.

the silhouette of the city pre-sunrise.

full moon to affirm my lunatic

שלומ

a sunset--god's amazing grace.

how absolutely incredible it is that we have a system to rescue children around the world. beautiful opportunities, i would say.

the city lights of milwaukee from a birds eye view after dark

one of the guys who live my house (the upstairs part)was sitting on the stone table in our garden, looking up at the sky. I asked him what he was doing and he said spending timewith his lover. He is a strange fellow, but his lover was the moon.Anyway, it reminded me of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To the Moon"