One Thousand Gifts

Whenever I read a book there are usually lines that say exactly what is in my head and heart. There are also often lines that I just love and want to share with the world.

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... accepting there are things we simply don't understand. But He does.

pg.21

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...the Word of God.... fills our emptiness with the true and real good, that makes eyes see, the body full of light.

pg.96

...we know it in the marrow, even if we have no words for it...

pg.110

God is present in all moments... all things.

pg.110

Seeing divine God present in all things I pay tribute to God by paying attention.

pg.111

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Worry is the facade of taking action when prayer really is.

pg.143

...disguising my deep fears as stress seems braver somehow.

pg.143

Belief in God has to be more than mental ascent, more than a cliched exercise in cognition. pg.146

Thanks is what builds trust.

pg.150

Every time fear freezes...

pg.151

Trauma's storm can mask the Christ and feelings lie.

pg.156

...sometimes we don't fully see...

pg.156

We take the moments God gives as bread and give thanks and the thanks itself becomes bread. The thanks itself nourishes. Thanks feeds our trust.

pg.158

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But humility is the only posture that can receive the wondrous grace gifts of God.

pg.171

10 minutes ago and that theoretical exploration of a theology of joy? Well, theories and theology stillbirth unless they can take on some skin, breathe in the polluted air of this world, and make it happen.

pg.174

While I may not always feel joy, God asks me to give thanks in all things, because he knows the feeling of joy begins in the action of Thanksgiving.

pg.176

The demanding of my own will is the singular force that smothers out joy - nothing else.

pg.177

True humility is self-smallness to the point of "blessed self-forgetfulness" and what could bring more happiness than emptying of self-will and being wholly immersed in the will of God for this moment? Joy – it’s always obedience.

pg.179

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At the last this is what will determine a fulfilling, meaningful life, a life that behind all the facades, every one of us longs to live: gratitude for the blessings that expresses itself by becoming blessing blessing.

pg.192

Passionately serving Christ alone makes us the loving servant to all. When the eyes of the heart focus on God, and the hands on always washing the feet of Jesus alone – the bones, they sing joy, and the work returns to its purest state: eucharisteo. The work becomes worship, a liturgy of thankfulness.

pg.194

this work – the thousand endless jobs – they each give the opportunity for one to become a gift, a thousand times over! Because with everyone of the thousand, endless jobs, I become the gift to God and to others because this work is the public God serving, the daily liturgy of thanks, the completing of the communion service with my service.

pg.200

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It’s a new voice is endless stream of grace, one I never get over. This love song He is singing, it is the antithesis of life's theme song, that refrain of rejection I know so well.

That mental soundtrack of condemnation and criticism that I’ve let run on continuous replay...

That beat heavy beat of failure a pounding bass of disappointment, it has pulsed through my days and I've mouthed the words, singing it to myself, memorizing the ugly lines by heart. They become heart.

For years, I tried medication, blade, work, escape, all attempts to drown out that incessant reverberating drum of self-rejection. All futility, acidic emptiness.

But here on a plane over black waters, I hear it well: the only thing to rip out the tape echoing of self-rejection is the song of His serenade.

One thousand gifts tuned me to the beat. It really is like C.S. Lewis argued: that the most fundamental thing is not how we think of God but rather what God thinks of us: "How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important."

God thought of me, this ridiculous and relentlessly pursuing love, so bold. Everywhere, everything, is love.

pg. 204-205

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Blessings keep our awareness of life's holy potential ever present. They awaken us to our lives... with each blessing uttered we extend the boundaries of the sacred and ritualize our love of life. One hundred times a day, everywhere we turn, everything we touch, everyone we see. The blessing can be whispered. No one even need hear. No one but the Holy one. "Holy One of blessing, Your presence fills the Universe. Your presence fills me. "

pg. 225