And I see the insidious nature of race, class and privilege playing out in the most historically damaging ways possible—the server/served relationship. Everyone wants to know why customer service has gone to hell in a handbasket. I want to know why customer behavior has gone to hell in a handbasket. When we treat people as objects, we dehumanize them. We do something really terrible to our souls and theirs.
— -Brené Brown (Daring Greatly)
When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.
— Henri Nouwen
And this might sound like a downer but, I’m a kind of a depressive. And, for me, that means that just sometimes it kind of hurts to be alive. It’s just like, I just, it just —ugh!—you know? It sucks that you gotta kinda do each day, and keep doing the next day, and it just… Moments hurt sequentially. And when I’m bombarded with information and stimulation and I can always fill that need every time, and I feel like I’m getting bored, and I’m not happy, and so I can go and do something really quickly to kinda fill that need. I think I confused the issue and confused the subject and did not quite understand, the way I was feeling was deeper than just, ‘I’m bored right now’. It had something to do with ‘I’m deeply stressed that, uh, life goes on’. [laughs] I don’t know how to say it… And so some of the loneliness and boredom that came from the internet was really instructional because it let me know my problems were much more internal than eternal.
— Paul Miller in ‘I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet’
I had been imagining these shoes in my brain for a little over a month. It feels like a relief to have them created and wearable. :)View full size

I had been imagining these shoes in my brain for a little over a month. It feels like a relief to have them created and wearable. :)

View full size

(Source: robinhook)

The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well? You may say the wisest thing you can, old man—you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind—I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that. One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels.
— Henry David Thoreau

Crumbs from the Communion Table: "I love you so much that I need to hit you with this Bible. Really, really hard."

gcnjustin:

By far the most frustrating thing about having conversations on controversial issues is when people don’t know when to stop fighting.

It’s like going to play paintball with your friends, and then after the game is over, finding that someone won’t stop shooting.

“Whew! Well that was fun. Okay, let’s get this gear off and go get some coffee. There’s this great place over on— Ow!! Haha, okay, you got me one last time. Now let’s—Ow!! Hey! That hurts! Cut it out, man. OW! Dude! The game is over! OW!!! What the heck?! OW! STOP! OW!” …

It can’t get any darker than pitch-black, it can only get bright again.
— (via poetrycorner)

The Water Is Black: A thought that changed my life

thewaterisblack:

He said, ‘what are you afraid of, with your questions? Are you afraid of God not walking with you, or the universe turning its anthropomorphic back on you? or are you afraid of the culture in which you were raised ostracising you? are you afraid of human rejection?’ I said, ‘Yes, I’m definitely afraid of rejection from my friends and the world I know… judgment, separation, condemnation, and the angry Paul dusting his hands and feet of me….but if I’m honest, I’m not afraid of God. I know God wants me to know the truth, because He is the truth. I don’t think He’s intimidated or dishonored by my earnest search for the truth. I don’t think God wants me to think of Him wrongly, although i think he’d understand if I did. Maybe He just wants me to listen and act accordingly.’

Truth-searching without bias. Yes. What a risky yet necessary journey to embark on.
Matthew Arnold, Dover BeachView full size

Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach

Getting Getting Someone To Fall In Love With You [Thought Catalog]

” There are so many games you can play. Just thinking about the self-imposed rules of dating in our generation is enough to make me weep. Can’t I just go up to you and be like, ‘Hi. I really like you. I feel like I could possibly love you. Do you feel similarly? Blink once for yes and twice for no.’ “

(Source: t.co)

Fire and Eden. #texture #color #summer (Taken with Instagram)View full size

Fire and Eden. #texture #color #summer (Taken with Instagram)

The Water Is Black: This is profound to me.

This may be the best essay/ discussion on human sexuality as it relates to faith that I have ever seen. The example of a continuum feels so true to me. And I Love the key infusion of individual stories— this is not just theorizing. Wow.

Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we’re quoting.
— John Green (via glasspaperskyscraper)

Crumbs from the Communion Table: Sick of Christianity? This one's for you.

gcnjustin:

Do you ever get sick of Christianity?

Are you a Christian, but embarrassed to be seen as one?

Are you a non-Christian who secretly (or not so secretly) wants to run the other way every time someone near you self-identifies as a Christian?

Are you tired of the politics that seems to have…