“What
is thinking? It is the activity of searching out what must be true, or cannot be true, in light of given facts or assumptions. It extends the information we have and enables us to see the larger picture, both clearly and wholly. It reveals falseness, inaccuracy and error to those who wish to know. It is a powerful gift of God to be used in the service of truth.
Bluntly stated, to serve God well, we must think straight, as crooked thinking—intentional or not—always favors evil. By contrast, to take the “information” of Scripture into a mind thinking straight, under the direction and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, is to place our feet solidly on the high road of spiritual formation under God” (Dallas Willard quoted in Renovare Weekly Digest for Feb. 24, 2017).
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“Falling is not just a physical accident. Falling means recognizing freely and sincerely the limits of our strength in the face of situations that are beyond us and force us to submit. Falling shows our human frailty. It reveals the fragile clay of which we are made, showing us that we are neither omnipotent nor invulnerable. Confronted with such a fall, we may nurture a spirit of revolt…. Or we may nurture a spirit of resignation…. There is a third possibility, however. We can nurture the spirit of humility. While calmly accepting our fall, we may still trust in God, whose strength comes to reinvigorate our weakness, and get up again with renewed courage”(Leonardo Boff in Way of the Cross – – – Way of Justice).
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“We see God best when we learn to see and experience beauty, goodness, and truth. Because when we see them, we get a glimpse of God. We not only see them, we hear them, we smell them, we touch them and we taste them. God gave us all our senses – physical and also spiritual – to feel God’s love. God sings His love to you in birdsong. God smiles at you in maple trees. God charms you with the color green. He gave you eyes to see sunsets. Ears to hear rainfall. A nose to smell a rose. God’s massive love appears in the small fragments. God is loving you in these moments, even if you do not know it” (James Bryan Smith, The Magnificent Story, coming in August 2017).
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Resistance is what it means to tell the truth and defend people in public, even – and especially – when it is inconvenient, dangerous and uncomfortable. What truths must we tell? We must tell the truth that the entire world is not white, straight, Christian, cis-gendered, American born, male, or able-bodied, and that those of us who aren’t matter just as much as those of us that are. We must tell the truth that rhetoric and policies that encourage violence against those same people are not of God and not of the freedom we espouse” (Brittany Packnett in Sojourners, January, 2017).
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