"But despite the untruths involved, they nevertheless made good copy, and the editors ate it all up with a spoon, straight out of the carton. One of those editors had read some Derrida in college, and so he was good with the idea of perspectives from every which direction, especially if it made good copy" (Evangellyfish, p. 170). … [Read more...]
Forgiveness as Transaction
"We cannot forgive those who are defiant, however much we might like to. Because forgiveness is a transaction, if someone steals your car, you can't run down the street after them, yelling out your forgiveness" (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 95). … [Read more...]
Legally Speaking
"Not that they knew about it at the time, but Shattuck had pulled all their shirts up over their heads and rolled all their socks down, creating a little black wool bead around the tops of their expensive Italian shoes" (Evangellyfish, p. 164). … [Read more...]
A Basic Character Trait
"Forgiveness comes from someone whose heart is disposed to kindness and tenderheartedness; we are therefore talking not merely about isolated acts of forgiveness, but also about a deep-rooted disposition to forgive. A forgiving heart is a character trait" (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 94). … [Read more...]
But Hardly Anybody Has Gray Eyes
"With that, Radavic swiveled his head and looked straight at Rourke with what he thought was a steely, gray-eyed gaze, like in those TV legal-office drama shows, at an especially tense moment when one of the handsome actors rivets another handsome actor with an unshakable and hardened resolve and says, 'Dammit, Trevor, this is our job!'" (Evangellyfish, p. 162). … [Read more...]
Forgiveness in Marriage
"We must deal with the fact that marriage means marriage of a sinner to a sinner . . . in order to deal with sin rightly, we have to understand forgiveness, and anyone who wants to be married in this fallen world without understanding forgiveness is frankly out of his mind" (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 93). … [Read more...]
Staggering into the Truth
"This was not so much a penetrating flash of insight as it was -- to use a term popular with clinical psychologists who have studied this kind of thing -- a lucky guess. A blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while" (Evangellyfish, p. 160). … [Read more...]
Rendering the Right Thing
"And keep in mind that if are not being diligent to render what God says to render, then it will probably be a matter of mere days before you are rendering the opposite. By this I mean caustic acid from husbands instead of warm affection, and castrating disrespect from wives instead of honor" (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 92). … [Read more...]
Quietly Ignored
"A certain kind of life always goes back to high school, a fact often overlooked by otherwise insightful biographers. Grown-up life is just a continuation of high school, a fact overlooked by everyone else" (Evangellyfish, p. 159). … [Read more...]
Two Orientations
"Man was made to tend the garden, while woman was made to tend the man" (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 91). … [Read more...]
Which Rarely Happens in Nature
"His long fingers were splayed, hands together, fingertip to fingertip, as though a spider were sideways on a mirror, doing push-ups in an agitated manner" (Evangellyfish, p. 157). … [Read more...]
Two Kinds of Equality
"Christian equality can be described as equity, or even-handedness. Egalitarianism, in contrast, demands sameness, or equality of outcome. These two visions of equality are about as comparable as dry and wet. Think of it in terms of ten teenage boys trying to dunk a basketball: equity means that they all face the same ten-foot standard, and only two them them can do it -- equity thus usually means differences in outcome. Egalitarianism wants equality of outcome, and there is only one way to get that -- lower the net. Sameness of outcome requires differences in the standards" (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 90). … [Read more...]
Not Too Gooby
"Stacey was trying to figure out a way to communicate something along the lines of 'my hero' without sounding too gooby. She like Keith about as much as Keith liked Mindy, and knew she was a little behind Mindy in a race that Mindy wasn't even in, and so she had to play it cool. So she was silent and just looked on admiringly" (Evangellyfish, p. 155). … [Read more...]
Sanctified Ambition
"Jesus does not say that we are to rip out the chief seats in the synagogues, but rather how to relate to them. He does not teach us to get rid of seats of honor at banquets -- He teaches us how to get into them. He does not say that it is wrong to want to be great in the kingdom of heaven. He shows us how to become great in the kingdom of heaven. The glorious thing is that His method of doing this (becoming the servant of all) is a great way of removing the toxins of selfishness that will almost certainly be corrupting our ambition" (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 85). … [Read more...]
Tattoos Say So Much
"This part of town had their crazy pastors too, but they mainly operated out of storefronts with names like Knee Deep in Glory Gospel Center. And some of their pastors had tattoos, but these were tattoos that said, 'I was in the Navy once, before I met Jesus,' instead of the uptown ecclesiastical version that said, 'I am desperate to accessorize my iPad'" (Evangellyfish, pp. 150-151). … [Read more...]
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