this is the next to last post of manning quotes! it's like the magical mr. jeremiah harvey says in workout class when we're close to being done -- "we're getting there." these are from chapters 9-10. enjoy!
Simply present yourself to God, clinging to nothing but your
humanness.
He (Jesus) was enthralled with his father. In utter self-forgetfulness, was the growing
intimacy with, trust in, and love of his Abba.
He lived securely in his father’s acceptance.
His single minded orientation toward His father freed him
from self-consciousness. Lost in wonder
and gratefulness, he taught us the true meaning of humility.
The humble man is surprised by all the good that he sees
around him rather than scandalized by what he cannot judge away.
Based on the solid, irrefutable evidence of God’s relentless
faithfulness, a certainty in the trustworthiness of the tremendous Lover
evolves without the least sweat or strain on our part.
The humbly confident disciple, when asked to explain his
surety in the love of God, scratches his head and says, “I can’t explain it
because I really don’t know.”
The spiritual woman does not fret and flap over
opportunities missed, does not hammer herself for not working hard enough, and
does not have a panic attack wondering whether she has received grace in vain.
She lives in quiet confidence that God is working in her day and night.
I have always known about your flaw and I have taken
advantage of it.
We formulate plans to fulfill what we perceive to be the
purpose of our lives (inevitably limited), and when the locomotive of our
longings gets derailed we deem ourselves failures.
Our disappointments arise from presuming to know the outcome
of a particular endeavor.
Without the comparison, it would have been happy, content in
the knowledge that it was exactly the way it was supposed to be.
Trust yourself as one entrusted by God with everything you
need to live life to the full.
We are providentially equipped to fulfill the unique purpose
of our existence.
Our very existence is one of the never-to-be repeated ways
God has chosen to express himself in space and time. Because we are made in God’s image and
likeness, you and I are yet another promise that he has made to the universe
that he will continue to love it and care for it.
I shall be full of his actuality and find him everywhere in
myself and fine myself nowhere. I shall
be lost in Him. – Merton
How glorious the splendor of a human heart which trusts that
it is loved!
