The Riches of a New Book - Elizabeth Goudge Quote

One especially poignant and influential character in Elizabeth Goudge's novel The White Witch is Parson Hawthyn. He lives in extreme poverty in a drafty hut beside the church. In one scene, he painfully rises after kneeling a long time in prayer and heads back to his house. 

For a moment he was visited by a sense of depression because autumn was here and winter not far behind and it might be a very long time before he felt really warm again. Then he thrust the thought aside with shame. He had a bed to sleep in, even if he was not always very warm in it. Suddenly he remembered how rich he now was. Upstairs he had a tinderbox, a candle, and a new book. Entirely forgetting his need of pity, entirely forgetting the poor, he dropped his wet cloak on the floor and clambered up the crazy little staircase to his attic bedroom with the greed of a miser scurrying to his gold.

(photo by Tanya Prodaan at Unsplash)

Blessings,

Love as a Choice - quote by Jan Karon

Father Tim reflects on the long journey it has been to earn the love and trust of a "discarded" boy.

I had to love [Dooley] when he threw his shoe at the wall and  cussed my dog, love him when he called me names I won’t repeat, love him when he refused to eat what I’d cooked after celebrating and preaching at three Sunday services…. You get the idea. I enjoyed the warm feelings, the stuff of the heart, when it was present between us, as it sometimes was, even in the beginning. But when it wasn’t, there was the will to love him, something like a generator kicking in, a backup.

Excerpt from In the Company of Others, p. 261

I love that simile. When the "power's out" (our own human strength), God gives us the resources to keep on giving and loving.

(Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino at Unsplash)

Blessings,

Best-read vs. Well-Read - Quote from Dennis Kinlaw

Five years ago I posted a quote from one of my favorite pastors and thinkers, Dr. Dennis Kinlaw, on the importance of deep reading. This week I was listening to one of his sermons, and was delighted to hear more of his literary journey. He shares about a time as a young pastor when he was acting as chauffeur for visiting speaker, A. W. Tozer:

Tozer had an 11th grade education. I had my Masters of Divinity degree and had studied a couple of years at Princeton. We talked books, and he told me about books I never knew existed. He was the best-read man I had ever talked with. Maybe not the most widely read, but the best-read. As we talked about books, he suddenly looked at me and said, "Kinlaw, don't ever read a good book!" I blinked and said, "I beg your pardon?" He said, "You'll never have time to read all the best ones, for goodness sake don't waste your time on a good one." 

That was a moment of liberation for me because I had a lot of friends. When we pastors would meet together, one of them would say, "Have you read...?" and I wanted to be able to say, "Oh, yes, I've read.... But have you read...?" And we played one-upmanship with each other. And the prize went to the one who'd read the most, not the one who'd read the best. 

After that moment, I found myself re-reading some things. You know you don't get any credit for a second and third time through. But it will make a radical change in the inner dialogue of your inner being. So I've always given thanks to A.W. Tozer [for deepening my reading life.]

I don't think this means that we only have to read theology books. But I do know that once I trained my literary taste buds to enjoy deeper books, it became very hard to read fluff. In between Christian classics, I also enjoy WWII memoirs, children's lit and vintage detective fiction. Plus, now that I'm 63, I definitely don't have to time to read mediocre books!

Blessings,