My life is full of convenience. It is full of transaction, at its best a mutually beneficial exchange of value, a kind of arm’s-length benign use of one another for our own ends. But it is not full of contemplation. It is often efficient. But it is lonely.

— Andy Crouch, The Life We're Looking For

There is nothing more difficult to outgrow than anxieties that have become useful to us, whether as explanations for a life that never quite finds its true force or direction, or as fuel for ambition, or as a kind of reflexive secular religion that, paradoxically, unites us with others in a shared sense of complete isolation: you feel at home in the world only by never feeling at home in the world.

— Christian Wiman (My Bright Abyss)

It takes a lot for me to get angry. Most of my friends can probably tell you the number of times I've actually gotten mad at them. It's rare, and for some of them, I haven't yet. This blog is different than probably anything I've ever written. I usually start with some witty quote from a book or article that I've read that strikes a chord in my soul. This week, though, I am going pretty stream of consciousness because I am angry and do not want to mince words.

And why is it so important to act strong? I have been graced with the strength to endure. But I have been assaulted, and in the assault wounded, grievously wounded. Am I to pretend otherwise? Wounds are ugly, I know. They repel. But must they always be swathed? I shall look at the world through tears. Perhaps I shall see things that dry-eyed I could not.

— Nicholas Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son

The sacralization of the political is a reality parallel to developments in our churches: we’ve blurred the line between patriotism and faithful Christian practice, we’ve allowed church services to take on nationalistic dimensions, and we’ve elevated the nation to the level of loyalty the church alone should occupy.

— Kaitlyn Schiess

In our western world, we live in a culture that stresses the importance and significance of the individual, while at the same time downplaying the importance of God. These two emphases, the significance of the individual life and the absence of God, cannot go together without creating an intolerable restlessness inside each of us.

— Ronald Rolheiser