At the epicenter
At the epicenter of my faith is not a list of truths.
At the epicenter of my faith is a person, Jesus Christ.
– Andy Stanley
God means my sins
Take every word as spoken to yourselves. When the word thunders against sin, think thus: “God means my sins”; when it presseth any duty, “God intends me in this.” Many put off Scripture from themselves, as if it only concerned those who lived in the time when it was written; but if you intend to profit by the word, bring it home to yourselves: a medicine will do no good, unless it be applied.
– Thomas Watson
On luck
The most creative people capitalize on the fact that vision comes from within. – Chris Orwig
Your unique view of the world is your most valuable asset, regardless of what you do. One way to sharpen and improve this view is by channeling good luck. As Richard Wiseman demonstrated, luck isn’t arbitrary after all. And when it comes to luck, it seems we do have the ability to amplify or diminish its effect, as Wiseman later found.
According to Wiseman, these people “generate” their own good fortune by following four basic principles: Create and notice chance opportunities. Make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition. Create self-fulfilling prophecies via positive expectations. Adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.
– Richard Wiseman from The Creative Fight by Chris Orwig
On observing for drawing
Observing involves noticing the basic shapes, proportions and values of objects rather than thinking of them as “buildings”, “trees” or “people”. Once you have an understanding of the principles and have trained yourself to observe, it is then only a matter of telling your hand to draw what your eye sees, not what your mind thinks the subject should look like.
– Mark and Mary Willenbrick
Drawing for the Absolute Beginner
The Riddle of Strider
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
– J.R.R. Tolkien
I Can’t Complain
But I can’t complain
I can’t complain
Every days too short to let it go to waste
Now I can’t complain
I can’t complain
You gotta treat every day like a holiday
And I’m telling you
That I know some days I’m gonna stumble
And I know the cookie’s gonna crumble
And I know that life is gonna suck some days
But I can’t complain
~ Relient K (Can’t Complain on Collapsible Lung)
Masters of technology
The future masters of technology will have to be light-hearted and intelligent. The machine easily masters the grim and the dumb.
~ Marshall McLuhan
Hanging on during a bumpy ride
Even as kids reach adolescence, they need more than ever for us to watch over them. Adolescence is not about letting go. It’s about hanging on during a very bumpy ride.
~ Ron Taffel
Einstein on God
I am reading a biography on Einstein and found this paragraph interesting. A reporter asked Einstein if he believed in God.
“I am not an atheist,” he began. “The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.”
The universe is indeed marvelously arranged.
I have a dream
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.