Photo credit here.
It is no use to ask God with factitious earnestness for A when our whole mind is in reality filled with the desire for B. We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us. Even an intimate human friend is ill-used if we talk to him about one thing while our mind is really on another, and even a human friend will soon become aware when we are doing so.
C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
You Can Leave Your Hat On
A Few Stray Lines
Some recent lines from my journal.
Your sense of worth is coming from an undependable source. If you wish for a constant and unerring support, turn to the One Who lit up your soul in the very beginning.
…
Often, the rays of sun
find your face
and pause,
simply because
it’s so delightful
to rest
on such a
beautiful cheek.
…
“Take me by the hand and walk with me in wild groves. Abandon yourself to the unmeasured rhythms and spend your days laughing at my side. Walk along paths strewn with hyssop and discover what it is that you’ve been longing for but that you’ve been too afraid to seek.” – Love.
“That was a little over-the-top, don’t you think?” – Me.
…
A prayer.
Wander off into the field
and let the wind ruffle your hair.
GOD is near,
GOD is here.
Walk through the valley,
shield in hand.
GOD will guard you,
GOD will help you stand.
…
Carry my burden –
I am sinking beneath the weight.
The trials of life are understated to those who would be too scared to carry on if they were to be told the true weight of things.
What is a poet? An unhappy man who hides deep anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so formed that when the sigh and cry pass through them, it sounds like lovely music…. And people flock around the poet and say: ‘Sing again soon’ – that is, ‘May new sufferings torment your soul but your lips be fashioned as before, for the cry would only frighten us, but the music, that is blissful.’
Søren Kierkegaard
Letter to Juliet
Today I came across a photo of a letter I wrote to Juliet (of Romeo and Juliet fame) while visiting Verona, Italy, almost seven years ago. It’s tradition to write to her with a petition for love. I folded up my letter, which concealed my own very young and idealistic petition, and hid it in the crack of a stone wall somewhere in one of the nearby monasteries. I’m still waiting on Juliet’s reply.
Excerpt:
“I promise to bring the whole force of my spirit – and the full intensity of my thought and will – to the birth and blossoming of this one true love. Please guide my heart, and that of my as-yet-unknown beloved, to a place of beautiful possibility, so that our meeting may be sweet and our love long. This is the wish – and plea – of a girl who, like you, is willing to give her whole self in exchange for a Love that is greater than life.”