Readings
So I didn't just put those books on the sidebar because they look pretty... I'm actually reading them, believe it or not. And God is definitely using them in my life so I decided to share a couple of quotes that have been particularly challenging for me...
"Loss is like a terminal illness. There is nothing we can do to spare ourselves from such sickness, except perhaps put it off for a while. But there is another sickness that we can heal -- the sickness of our souls. In matters of the soul, I do not want to treat symptoms but to heal the illness."
-Jerry Sittser, A Grace Disguised, page 18
"Both artists and athletes understand the nature of true freedom. They give up their freedom to do whatever they want, subject themselves to strict discipline, and in the end gain the freedom to perform at the highest levels of artistic and athletic achievement. Loss of freedom actually leads to freedom. It is the freedom of obedience, gained by following a strict regimen of practice."
-Jerry Sittser in The Will of God as a Way of Life, page 62
"'Our sanctification [does] not depend upon changing our works, but in doing that for God's sake which we commonly do for our own. The most excellent method... of going to God [is] that of doing our common business without any view of pleasing men, and purely for the love of God.'"
-Brother Lawrence quoted in Jerry Sittser's The Will of God as a Way of Life, page 89
And it is terribly difficult to just put a quote or two but:
"Why does God seemingly require relinquishment before bringing something into being? Part of the answer lies in the fact that frequently we hold on so tightly to the good that we do know that we cannot receive the greater good that we do not know."
-Richard Foster in Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, page 51
"'The death of my own will' -- strong language. But all of the great devotional masters have found it so. Soren Kierkegaard echoes Woolman's experience when he notes, 'God creates everything out of nothing -- and everything which God is to use he first reduces to nothing.'"
-Richard Foster in Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, page 52
