Category: random thoughts

u2 concert tonight. wonderful time.

for me the moment that stood out the most was a somewhat silly story. as the edge started playing the intro to the song “miracle drug”, bono began to tell a joking story.

“the edge is not from this planet,” he started. he continued, and recalled “meeting” him in the late 70’s in dublin.

“his spaceship landed and this creature came out.

‘who are you’, larry asked him.

‘i’m the edge.’

‘where do you come from,’ asked adam clayton.

‘i come from the future.’

so i asked him, ‘how is that?’

he replied, ‘it’s better.'”

while slightly silly, it was a story of hope. the hope and reason that each of us is here – that we are all working for a better future. often times it’s easy to say that the world is in a decline and that everything is falling apart, but the hope we have is that the future is a better place – even though we can’t see it.

though there is injustice now, though there is suffering now, though often times things seem to be getting worse and worse, i believe in a better future.

1. if i had to eat this week on the same amount of money i put in the offering plate on sunday morning, how many meals would i get?

2. if i was trying to develop a relationship with a significant other, and i gave to that person the same amount of quality time i’ve given to God in the past week, how long would that relationship last?

3. if Jesus looked into my heart and demanded something from me in order to have eternal life, would i walk away sad?

Be true to yourself.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build a shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance.
Count and give thanks for your blessings every day.

-John Wooden

When the brilliant ethicist John Kavanaugh went to work for three months at “the house of the dying” in Calcutta, he was seeking a clear answer as to how best to spend the rest of his life. On the first morning there he met Mother Teresa. She asked, “And what can I do for you?” Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him.

“What do you want me to pray for?” she asked. He voiced the request that he had borne thousands of miles from the United States: “Pray that I have clarity.”

She said firmly, “No, I will not do that.” When he asked her why, she said, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.” When Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.”

Craving clarity, we attempt to eliminate the risk of trusting God. Fear of the unknown path stretching ahead of us destroys childlike trust in the Father’s active goodness and unrestricted love.

-unknown

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee. Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbours. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.

-John Donne

Because while I do not know who the enemy is any longer, I do know who my friends are, and that I have not done as well by them as I should. I hope to change that. I hope to do better.

– from Bablyon 5