Chapter 4
It is important to recognize these self-commentaries for the mind tricks they are. They have nothing to do with our real dignity. How we view ourselves at any given moment may have very little to do with who we really are. - Gerald May
Only reckless confidence in a Source greater than ourselves can empower us to forgive the wounds inflicted by others.
I am reluctant to push God off His judgement seat and take my place there to pronounce on others when I have neither the knowledge nor the authority to judge anyone. No one at this table has ever seen a motive. Therefore, we cannot suspect what inspired the action of another.
We are sons and daughters of the Most High and maturing in tenderness to the extent that we are for others - all others - to the extent that no human flesh is strange to us, to the extent that we can touch the hand of another in love, to the extent that for us there are no "others."
The compassion of God in our hearts opens our eyes to the unique worth of each person.
I felt that to acknowledge their [prejudices] existence would give them power. Ironically, denial and repression are in fact what gives them power.
What makes the Kingdom come is heartfelt compassion: a way of tenderness that knows no frontiers, no labels, no compartmentalizing, and no sectarian divisions. Jesus, the human Face of God, invites us to deep reflection on the nature of true discipleship and the radical lifestyle of Abba's child.
Chapter 5
As systematic theology advances, the sense of wonder declines.
Jesus did not die at the hands of muggers, rapists or thugs. He fell into the well-scrubbed hands of deeply religious people...
Obedience was the expression of the love of God and neighbor, and therefore any form of piety that stood in the way of love stood in the way of God Himself.
...safe in the shadow of God's love.
Being accepted, enamored, and loved by God comes first, motivating the disciple to live the law of love.
Without deliberate awareness of the present risenness of Jesus, life is nonsense, all activity useless, all relationships in vain. - Don Watkins
All day and every day we are being reshaped into the image of Christ...nothing is irrelevant to it, nothing is without significance in it.
Jesus...the incarnation of all the Father's feelings and attitudes toward human kind.
The miracle of the gospel is Christ, risen and glorified, who this very moment tracks us, pursues us, abides in us, and offers HImself to us as companion for the journey!
Contemplative awareness of the risen Jesus shapes our resemblance to Him and turns us into the person God intended us to be.
Jesus, rather than self, is always the indispensable core of ministry...the moment we acknowledge that we are powerless, we enter into the liberating sphere of the risen One and we are freed from anxiety over the outcome.
This book is significant for me. I feel like I'm on the edge of something beautiful...like I've been circling around it and tasting of the goodness...and now He's inviting me to jump - free falling in His perfect love. (which sounds pretty but is really a scary, scary picture...but that's just where I want to be - entirely surrounded, controlled, lost in His Love...want to jump with me?)
