I just wanted to share a few quotes from the book I just finished, 'Through Painted Deserts', by Donald Miller. Good book, easy read, funny and thought provoking. These are a couple of things that caught me during the read:
"Many cities, these days, seem to have people living on the surface of life but hardly in its soil, diluting the deeper questions of life in television monologues and reality shows, amusing ourselves to death, as Neil Postman would say." [If you don't know who Neil Postman is, check out this link.]
"I start thinking again about what Paul was saying, about how we have to submit to whatever God has us on this journey for, about how we just have to agree that it is all His. And I know God made stars and friends and love and poetry to dazzle us, but there really is a part of me that wants some freedom, that doesn't want to have to do everything right or be religious anymore. It's not a serious struggle, but it's like I said about how and why questions, when you know the why, you are just kind of trapped, and when you only ask how and never ask why, you can be happy and ignorant. Even if God is taking the cosmos somewhere good, I begin to wonder what He does with folks who just want out."
""Yeah,", Paul confesses. "I guess I am. Nothing deep, really, just that, you know, I know you have been thinking about things and I just feel like God has put us here to enjoy Him, and He gave us free will so it is tough sometimes, because people use their free will selfishly, but I think also He created us to enjoy Him, that He is love, you know, and I would just hate to see you walk away from that. I mean, if He were love and all.""
[Standing in the mountains of Oregon watching the sun rise.]
"And if these mountains had eyes, they would wake to find two strangers in their fences, standing in admiration as a breathing red pours its tinge upon earth's shores. These mountains, which have seen untold sunrises, long to thunder praise but stand reverent, silent so that man's weak praise should be given God's attention.
It is a wonder that those exposed to such beauty forfeit the great questions in the face of this miraculous evidence. I think again about this small period of grace, and thank God for it, that if only for a season, I could feel the why of life, see it in the metaphor of light, in the endlessness of the cosmos, in the miracle of friendship. And had these mountains the ability to reason, perhaps they would contemplate the beauty of humanity, and praise God for the miracle that each of us is, pondering the majesty of God and the wonder of man in one bewildering context."
Anyway...good stuff from a good book. Check it out...check out the links...enjoy.
-r
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