Honest Friends

“An acquaintance merely enjoys your company, a fair-weather companion flatters when all is well, a true friend has your best interests at heart and the pluck to tell you what you need to hear.”  ― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

See Everything As I See It...or else

"It takes God a long time to get us to stop thinking that unless everyone sees things exactly as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God's view." (Oswald Chambers)

Strange Conversations----

“Sometimes it's better to be with the sheep, who don't say anything. And better still to be alone with one's books. They tell their incredible stories at the time when you want to hear them. But when you're talking to people, they say some things that are so strange that you don't know how to continue the conversation.” 
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Weeping Mothers

“It is Rachel of old,” said the elder, “weeping for her children, and will not be comforted because they are not. Such is the lot set on earth for you mothers. Be not comforted. Consolation is not what you need. Weep and be not consoled, but weep."

(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov)

Why I am an Atheist Who Believes in God

What I’m “looking for” in church is inner stillness and peace of the kind my friend Holly Meade lived out as she faced her death, not an adrenaline rush or entertainment, let alone spectacle. I do not need more entertainment! I live in a time and place where I’m bombarded by entertainment 24/7. Nor do I need more celebrity leaders or Bible teachers. I’m not looking for clever new words about so-called theological facts but for the experience of spirituality itself. The last thing I crave is to be exposed to the sort of grandstanding preachers that so many evangelical churches seem to breed with the ubiquity of maggots appearing in road kill. The last thing I want is a new and improved “worship experience.” The last thing I want is for the service to be socially and politically relevant ...Why I am an Atheist Who Believes in God: How to give love, create beauty and find peace

by Frank Schaeffer

It's Not About Revival Anymore.

"....... but they will not primarily be based on calling people back to what they have left, but instead be based on calling people into something they have never experienced." (Carey Nieuwhof)

Getting In Close With People....

Michael Frost once said:

It is not any longer possible that we sit in some command center telling other people how to go forth. I’m speaking in particular to those of you who are clergy. You cannot preach about, encourage or motivate or mobilize people into mission unless you model what missional proximity looks like. You cannot sit in some ivory tower spending days and days preparing sermons which are seeking to motivate people into mission unless you yourself are prepared to embrace that similar commitment to proximity. Do you follow what I’m saying? I’m not just talking about proximity like our building is on the street corner on the main street with a gigantic sign and everyone knows that we are there. I’m talking about personal, relational, and geographic proximity to people.

What Is Our Real Position In Church?

"Instead we get hung up with other questions of hierarchy, gifting, and finding our own little molehill on the mountain of the Lord. When this happens, the church becomes its own personal proving ground. It is in this dastardly place that we see the simplicity of life together replaced with the all-too familiar scenario of human striving, ambition, and organizational strategies. It’s here, when the Body of Christ becomes all about personal achievement, approval, and self-actualization, that so many lose heart. The good news is, when we finally learn that our place in the family of God is simply “in Christ,” we begin a new journey— one that makes the Lord Jesus central so we can look to him for leadership, guidance, comfort, and love."

( STEPHANIE BENNETT in the forward to Finding Church by Wayne Jacobsen)

Church is not Bricks And Boards.... But the Blood And Bonrs Of Peoplem

"The Church is not the bricks and boards of the building but the blood and bones of people in a growing relationship with each other with Jesus as the head."

(Nick Sembrano)

Take Yourself Seriously For Once

"He had a high opinion of his own insight a weakness excusable in him as he was fifty, an age at which a clever man of the world of established position can hardly help taking himself rather seriously."

(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Big Grace Of God

"At the last Judgment Christ will say to us, “Come, you also! Come, drunkards! Come, weaklings! Come, children of shame!” And he will say to us: “Vile beings, you who are in the image of the beast and bear his mark, but come all the same, you as well.” And the wise and prudent will say, “Lord, why do you welcome them?” And he will say: “If I welcome them, you wise men, if I welcome them, you prudent men, it is because not one of them has ever been judged worthy.” And he will stretch out his arms, and we will fall at his feet, and we will cry out sobbing, and then we will understand all, we will understand the Gospel of grace! Lord, your Kingdom come!"

(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment)

Why Am I Afraid To Dance?

“Why am I afraid to dance, I who love music and rhythm and grace and song and laughter?
Why am I afraid to live, I who love life and the beauty of flesh and the living colors of the earth and sky and sea?
Why am I afraid to love, I who love love?”

(Eugene O’Neill’s play The Great God Brown)

I Can Do It Myself.....

Wow.......     ouch..... but thank you. ....  
"Though lip service is paid to the gospel of grace, many Christians live as if only personal discipline and self-denial will mold the perfect me. The emphasis is on what I do rather than on what God is doing. In this curious process God is a benign old spectator in the bleachers who cheers when I show up for morning quiet time....
Our eyes are not on God. At heart we are practicing Pelagians. We believe that we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps—indeed, we can do it ourselves."

(Brennan Manning. Ragamuffin Gospel)

Bearable Suffering Eats Our Soul.

"Intense, unexpected suffering passes more quickly than suffering that is apparently bearable; the latter goes on for years and, without our noticing, eats away at our soul, until, one day, we are no longer able to free ourselves from the bitterness and it stays with us for the rest of our lives."
( Paulo Coelho.  The Alchemist)

Everything We Want To Do Is Impossible

"...we are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear, and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But it’s still there."
(Paulo Coelho,  forward to, The Alchemist)

A Soul Cry?

“The worst type of crying wasn't the kind everyone could see--the wailing on street corners, the tearing at clothes. No, the worst kind happened when your soul wept and no matter what you did, there was no way to comfort it. ” 
― Katie McGarry, Pushing the Limits

Dance Like Nobody's Looking

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.” 
― William W. Purkey

Grown Up Christmas Wish List

"No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts

And everyone would have a friend And right would always win
And love would never end

This is my grown up Christmas list"
- David Foster

Discipleship Will Fix It

"I am not one who thinks that we ought to criticize the church very much. There is nothing wrong with the church that discipleship will not cure."- Dallas Willard

The Preferably Unheard

"There is really no such thing as the voiceless. There are only the deliberately silenced or the preferably unheard." - Arundhati Roy

How to Measure A Church3s Success Accurately

"Ultimately each church will be evaluated by only one thing, its disciples. Your church is only as good as its disciples. It does not matter how good your praise, preaching, programs or property are. If your disciples are passive, needy, consumerist, and not moving in the direction of radical obedience, your church is not good." Neil Cole?

We Have The Same Questions And Problems

"Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions."
(Paulo Coelho)

Drink From Every Cup????

"Never be ashamed,’ he said. ‘Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.’
‘How will I know which is which?’
‘By the taste. You can only know a good wine if you have first tasted a bad one."

(Paulo Coelho, Brida)

Warriors Telling Stories Around The Fire.

"The most important thing in all human relationships is conversation, but people don’t talk anymore, they don’t sit down to talk and listen. They go to the theater, the cinema, watch television, listen to the radio, read books, but they almost never talk. If we want to change the world, we have to go back to a time when warriors would gather around a fire and tell stories."
(Paulo Coelho. the-zahir)

Courage To Say Yes To Life

"Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn't have the courage to say "yes" to life?"
(Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes)

Somewhere On Earth There Is Someone Holy

Oh! he understood that for the humble soul of the Russian peasant, worn out by grief and toil, and still more by the everlasting injustice and everlasting sin, his own and the world’s, it was the greatest need and comfort to find someone or something holy to fall down before and worship.

“Among us there is sin, injustice, and temptation, but yet, somewhere on earth there is someone holy and exalted. He has the truth; he knows the truth; so it is not dead upon the earth; so it will come one day to us, too, ... "

(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov)

Are Those People Worthy?

"Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy." (Thomas Merton)

Buffoons Of Buffoons.

"His former acquaintances found him looking terribly aged, although he was by no means an old man. He behaved not exactly with more dignity but with more effrontery. The former buffoon showed an insolent propensity for making buffoons of others."
(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov)

A Righteous Gentile - Bonhoeffer

"Just hours before his execution in Flossenbürg concentration camp, the man directed his last words to this bishop. That Sunday he spoke them to a British officer, who was imprisoned with him, after he performed his last service and preached his last sermon. This officer was liberated and brought those last words and the news of the man’s death across Europe with him.

Across the English Channel, across France, and across Germany, in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, in a three-story house at 43 Marienburgerallee, an elderly couple sat by their radio. In her time the wife had given birth to eight children, four boys and four girls. The second son had been killed in the First War, and for a whole year his young mother had been unable to function. Twenty-seven years later, a second war would take two more boys from her. The husband was the most prominent psychiatrist in Germany. They had both opposed Hitler from the beginning and were proud of their sons and sons-in-law who had been involved in the conspiracy against him. They all knew the dangers. But when the war at last ended, news of their two sons was slow to arrive in Berlin. A month earlier they had finally heard of the death of their third son, Klaus. But about their youngest son, Dietrich, they had heard nothing. Someone claimed to have seen him alive. Then a neighbor told them that the BBC would the next day broadcast a memorial service in London. It was for Dietrich.

At the appointed hour, the old couple turned on their radio. Soon enough the service was announced for their son. That was how they came to know of his death.

As the couple took in the hard news that the good man who was their son was now dead, so too, many English took in the hard news that the dead man who was a German was good. Thus did the world again begin to reconcile itself to itself. The man who died was engaged to be married. He was a pastor and a theologian. And he was executed for his role in the plot to assassinate Hitler. This is his story."
( Eric Metaxas.  Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet,  Spy. A Righteous Gentile Vs The Third Reich.)

Our Church Buildings Can Feed EVERY Hungry Person On Earth.

"The rational dissonance gets even more intense at this time of year as millions of people will gather in billions of dollars worth of religious buildings to celebrate the birth of a homeless man while mostly ignoring the homeless around them. ....

Forget the money spent on pet food that would feed the world’s hungry.

Forget the money spent on arms and war that would clothe, educate and feed every poor person on the planet ten times over.

Forget what the 1% do with their wealth.

The money spent on religious buildings by those who claim to follow Jesus would also feed, clothe and educate every child born into poverty.

This is not about a scarcity of resources.
This is about misallocation of abundant resources.
This is about actually following Jesus who said, “Whatever you do unto the least you have done unto me."

(Steven Hill)

Status Over Happiness In Old Canada

"You mean they convinced people serfdom was an okay thing?
Oh quite easily. The most menial and wretched toil was held to be highly honourable. It conveyed a magical thing called "status." People preferred it to happiness."
(Pierre Berton, The Smug Minority,  1967)

Degradung Jobs And Grinding Poverty.

"...where those people really like serfs?
They would have resisted the name; but in our terms they were... historical evidence makes it clear that the masses of the people who lived in Canada in the Sixties were chained to tedious and degrading jobs which they despised; that between one-fifth and one-third of them were prisoners of a poverty so grinding we can scarcely contemplate it; and that only the wealthy had the freedom to enjoy a proper education."

(Pierre Berton, The Smug Minority. 1967)

Im Not Doing Anything

"When people ask me what I am doing on my day off. I say, 'l'm not doing anything."

They then suggest doing something.

To which I reply 'You must have misunderstood me, when I say I'm not doing anything. It' means I have specifically put time aside to do nothing."

Usless Jobs

"In a mechanized society there are tens of thousands of such button pushers and machine watchers. When true automation comes they will not be needed, but unless we abandon the work ethic of another era, their lives may still be wasted because of blind insistence that everyone must have a "job" even if the job is useless."

(Pierre Berton, The Smug Minority. 1967, Page 60)

Ebola Can't Be Cured In MY Church!

Time Magazine: Amazing Ebola heros.....  must read.... 

However, this quote made me sad..... because people still think God has a special house, requires one for worship..... and we shan't contaminate the "sanctuary" by.....

We have resurrected temple theology, by creating a local church building theology....
Yep, and no matter what you say some still dont get it.... just like the article says.

"The Eternal Love Winning Africa (ELWA) hospital didn’t have an isolation ward, nor was there time or money enough to build one. No hospital in Liberia had one. Looking around the compound for a solution, Brown’s eye settled on the modest chapel, bare but for a few battered wooden pews and a lectern that served as a pulpit.

“Well, of course, turning the chapel into an Ebola unit was not welcomed by the staff of the institution. The bulk of them said, ‘Why should we turn the house of God into a place where we put people with such a deadly disease?’ And some said, ‘Where will you provide for us to worship in the morning?’” Brown recalls"

Foul Tyranny.......

"There be rulers who have ruled with a foul tyrannic sway, • But they soon
became as though they had never, never been:..."

(Lady Burton's Edition of Her Husband's Arabian Nights: Translated ..., Volume 1 edited by Lady Isabel Burton, Justin Huntly McCarthy)

Don't Piss On The Earth's Rug...

"We are all time-sharers on planet Earth.  We are not asked to leave it a better place.  We are asked not to break anything or stain the rug."
~ Robert Brault

The Happy Rain

"There are many things I do for amusement, but for happiness I like to gather up my memories and go for a walk in the rain." ~ Robert Brault

Never Wrong.... But

"At some point you must decide if you want to succeed or just be someone who was never to blame for anything going wrong."
~Robert Brault

Only Sad, Not Unhappy

"One thing I've gotten used to over the years is people thinking I'm unhappy when I'm just sad."
~Robert Brault

Costs Of Exploring A Mysterious Smile

"There is often little behind a mysterious smile, but there are only expensive ways to find out."
(Robert Brault )

Men Want "Life Woman"

"What a woman wants from a man is love.  What a man wants from a woman is life." ~Robert Brault

Babe-In-Arms

"Is it so much that love asks -- that one day you be somebody's strength, the next day their babe-in-arms?"
(Robert Brault)

One More Chance To Love

"Another day, another chance to cherish those who have cast their lot with yours."
~Robert Brault

Better Houses... Lesser Men

"While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings."

(Henry David Thoreau)

Alone In What Matters Most

"In what concerns you much do not think that you have companions —know that you are alone in the world." (Henry David Thoreau)

Ask To See God... No Servant

When you travel to the Celestial City, carry no letter of introduction. When you knock, ask to see God — none of the servants. ~Henry David Thoreau. Letter to Harrison Blake. March 27,  1848

You Blind Me From Seeing God.

"When you knock, ask to see God — none of the servants."
~Henry David Thoreau

Trust Is Average Of Lies?

"If there be no God, then what is truth but the average of all lies."
~Robert Brault

Travelling At The Speed Of Time

"No matter how you rush about, you will find at the end of the day that you traveled at the speed of time."
~Robert Brault

Unknown Shrines?

"We are Godseekers all, though some be churchgoing believers and others pilgrims to an unknown shrine." ~Robert Brault

God Tried To Be A Secret..... but then....

"If God had wanted to be a big secret, He would not have created babbling brooks and whispering pines."
~Robert Brault

My Joy and Life Sucking Need To Be "Right" Causes Me To Be So "Badly" Wrong

I believe the core problematic issue within the human experience has something to do with the inherent desire of wanting to be certain we are 'right' (aka, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). This to me is the root of the core problem within our united journey as mankind because as soon as we feel certain we are 'right' we then believe we have the grounds to judge others. As soon as we convince others they can join us in our 'rightness' we can create power in numbers to do as we believe our 'rightness' demands of us.

This is where all the evil in life takes place, isn't it? Right there in the assumptions that bind judgement of others together; for no matter what actions follow judging others, they are always justified in our minds for we are certain these judgmental actions are for the greater good, no matter how awful these actions truly are....

We still have our beliefs, but we hold them in open palms instead of closed fists. We love with our beliefs instead of fighting with them. We choose to be human, and embrace our oneness as humanity. Most of all, we choose to enter into dialogue and discussion where we previously only entered into battles and angry defense."

(Mick Mooney.  How to Be Free in Faith Instead of a Slave to Religion-Made Certainty ,12/10/14 10. Huffington post)

Love Mingled With Grief Grows Greater?

“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater."

~J.R.R. Tolkien. Lord of the Rings

Unflinchingly Following The Light

"No half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly."

-J.R.R. Tolkien

Becoming Alive... Tolkien

"Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick."
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

There Is A Savage Savage Greed In Our Genes (Farley Mowat - Canadian Author)

"I think,  that there is a blind greed, a savage savage greed that is in our genes. The best that we can do with it is mask it. And that is what a lot of writers, including myself, I think,  have been doing, without realizing it. We tend to act as apologists for our own species. We tend to mask our detrimental aspects. And most of us don't ever realize that we are: I can't say we are being used, because who is it that is using us? We are using ourselves or abusing ourselves for the good of mankind, the apparent good, leading to the ultimate destruction, not only of our own species, but of many other species too.... It's confused, and I am confused."

(Farley Mowat ). Interview

Putting Back More.....

"A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out."George Bernard Shaw

Confusing Accepting A Belief Position With Connection with A Life Giving Spirit

"In our society, we tend to swear unyielding allegiance to a rigid position, confusing that action with finding an authentic connection to a life-giving Spirit."
(Rich Mullins. Forward to "Ragamuffin Gospel", Brennan Manning.

Does God Embrace My Humanness Even If You Don't?

"I discovered how little I had to do to deserve and receive the love of God and that He loved me more than I had ever imagined. Suddenly, instead of fearing and denying all of my real or imagined shortcomings, I could embrace my humanness. I could see God pursuing me through it and in spite of it."
(Michael Smith. Forward to "Ragamuffin Gospel. Brennan Manning)

I'm An Alive Child Soldier Boy

"Grateful that I am alive and was lucky enough to survive the civil war in my country, Sierra Leone, where I fought as a child soldier at the age of thirteen. " (Ishmael Beah)

Your Christian Noose

" Religion has programmed you with fear.

Fear of God’s rejection and disapproval
Fear of God’s discipline and punishment
Fear of Hell Fear of forfeiting God’s blessing
Fear of what you feel inside
Fear of trusting your own inner guidance
Fear of thinking for yourself
Fear of being wrong
Fear of being rejected by others

This is what religion does to some people. Fear is a noose that binds until it strangles. Courage is a muscle that needs exercise to get strong."

(Jim Palmer. Notes From Over The Edge)

Christian Kissing..... Let's Talk Kissing

Who wants a Left brain kiss? Bla! Speaking about how life is not so scripted....

"When we kiss someone, we don’t left brain it; we right brain a kiss. We don’t analyze a kiss before we do it, or plan it out according to some rule of thumb. We just make it up as we go along, following the signs, signals, and feedback loops of the one we’re kissing. We “kiss” life the same way."
(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life)

Love God And Do As You Will

“Love God, and do what you will.” (Augustine)

There Is No God Plan For Your Life. .. Only a Purpose

One of the biggest clichés in the church today has provided legions of people with untold comfort and consolation: “God has a wonderful plan for your life.” .....  it’s time to hack our way through the underbrush of presumption. Are you ready for the whack hack? Here it comes . .  . There is no plan. God didn’t give us a plan, but a purpose; not a map, but a mission; not a blueprint for tracing, but a blue sky for exploring. God’s plan is for us to spend our lives doing whatever unlocks our tear ducts, makes our throats deep with song, keeps the gales of laughter surging in our souls, and turns our feet to dancing."
(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life)

A Piñata Jesus: Piñata Worthy Jesus Clichés

I once had a student whose daughter, in year, went from being deep into SpongeBob SquarePants to being deep into Jesus. She wanted a Jesus birthday party . .  . with Jesus cake, Jesus candles, Jesus napkins, Jesus balloons, and, “Mom, can we have a Jesus piñata?”

No one is more tired than I am of seeing Jesus turned into a piñata for hacked-off people to hack away at to their hearts’ delight. But certain clichés about Jesus are piñata worthy  — and I give fair warning: I have just now become a hacker."

(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life)

A "Come See" Pilgrimage

"In whatever age you’re in . . .  to wherever places your pilgrimage takes you, from First-Age tinkering to Third-Age world changing, just keep following that voice: “Come and see!”"

(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life)

A Christianity Of Celebration and Festivals?

"Before much of the church sold out to a muted and moderate Gutenberg culture of words and propositions, Christianity itself was a celebratory culture of feast days and carnivals and festivities where artists of various media were employed to design architectural settings, paintings, music, clothes, food, sporting events, dancing, speeches, liturgy, movement. Festivals were as dynamic and dramatic, authentic and lunatic, noisome and fulsome as life itself."

(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life)

Play-Doh For The Spirit?

I suspect that a prime reason why Bethany was Jesus’ favorite place on earth was because he enjoyed Martha’s cooking. The problem was that feeding Jesus had become work for Martha, not play. She had gone from the joy of cooking to the burden of cooking. The Bread of Life yearns to be fun: not workspace for the stressed, but Play-Doh for the spirit. Most of us are like Martha: too busy to party."

(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life)

I Wanted To Kiss You This Way.

"I didn't want to kiss you goodbye- that was the trouble- I wanted to kiss you goodnight. And there's a lot of difference."  -Ernest Hemingway

How We Lived and Died

"Every man's life ends the same way. IT is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another."
(Ernest Hemingway)

Harmony Among A The Brokenness

"When you became a part of her family, you stayed a part of the family. It didn’t matter. When her youngest daughter divorced, Grandma still kept contact with the ex-husband. He was one of the pall bearers at her funeral, right alongside the daughter’s current partner. When her grandson (my husbands cousin) divorced, his wife still came to help Grandma clean her house. The ex-wife’s daughter (cousin’s step-daughter) was still very much a part of the family, even though there were no blood ties.
She was feisty, a hard worker, fiercely loyal, and outspoken. Everything I aspire to be. Man, I miss her. I am so glad I knew her."
(Carrie Marshall- "Remembering" About her husbands grandmother)

http://awefilledwonder.blogspot.com/2014/11/remembering.html

The Sound of Peace When It Goes Away.

"When Peace Goes Away, it Doesn’t Make a Sound"  (David Cain)

Inspired Repulsion While Weeping

"She had died quite suddenly in a garret, according to one story, of typhus, or as another version had it, of starvation. Fyodor Pavlovitch was drunk when he heard of his wife’s death, and the story is that he ran out into the street and began shouting with joy, raising his hands to Heaven: “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,” but others say he wept without restraint like a little child, so much so that people were sorry for him, in spite of the repulsion he inspired.

It is quite possible that both versions were true, that he rejoiced at his release, and at the same time wept for her who released him. As a general rule, people, even the wicked, are much more naive and simple-hearted than we suppose. And we ourselves are, too."
(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov)

Looking After Nothing Else?

"But he was one of those senseless persons who are very well capable of looking after their worldly affairs, and, apparently, after nothing else."

(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov)

Swimming In God

You go to church to find God but any God you found in church you brought in with you.... You are swimming in God, Truth and peace but you are oblivious to them."
(Jim Palmer. Notes From (Over) The Edge)

Religion Taught Us That We Should Be "Nice" And "Conform"

"Religion taught you that you should be nice, considerate, polite, amiable, and selfless. An antonym for “nice” is “improper.” “Improper” is defined as: “not being in accord with acceptable behavior and procedures; not in keeping with conventional mores.” Yep, that was Jesus! The road to Truth has improper written all over it. People traveling this road are a threat to all the nice people. Don’t expect them to be nice anymore, at least to you. Your world works because it hinges on you being nice. There will not be a crowd cheering you on. Knowing Truth is not a popularity contest, and the road to your freedom and end of suffering will be lined with people expressing disapproval. Every step on the path of Truth is an act of non-conformity.There will be resistance. There will be a lot of chances to turn back. Keep going! Be fearless! How much suffering will you tolerate? How many things will you continue doing and believing that have not worked and never will? How long will you put on that fake happy face, be nice, go to church, and conform?"

(Jim Palmer. Notes From (Over) The Edge)

Your Neighbour Must Eat Before You: Said Mohamed At The Fall Of Mecca

" Meanwhile, a few weeks before I meet Faizan Peerzada in Lahore, the Muslim Salvation Organization posts the even-harder-line view of a Mufti Ebrahim Desai from www.ask-imam.com’s fatwa department who claims that “[ t] he use of the drum as a musical instrument is expressly forbidden. . . .” Apparently percussion is not permissible but an online fatwa department is.

Dancing right in his chair (Faizan Peerzada, Pakistan), and playing air duff and nay to illustrate his story, he recounts: “All these things were present at the fall of Mecca, when Prophet comes down from the camel.” From that moment in Islamic history, Faizan sketches a tolerant, humanist Islam. “The first thing the Prophet Muhammad says is, ‘The smaller jihad is over today. Now begins the biggest Jihad.’ To fight with yourself to be a good human being. Your neighbor on the right and left must eat before you, as simple as that.”

(Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here : Untold Stories From The Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism)

Art The Only Protest Left Against Islamic Fundamentalism

<blockquote>" “Now art is the only way we can fight fundamentalism.” (Madeeha Gauhar, director of Ajoka Theatre, Pakistan) In an era when so many successful performers in the West are busy hawking perfume, modeling designer frocks, or dancing with the stars, this is an entirely different vision of what it can mean to be an artist."
(Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here : Untold Stories From The Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism) <blockquote/>

Let The Children Sing Without Fear

Two years earlier children and parents were bombed by radicals for attending this theater with play and song. But the people of this Pakistani city would not give in, and the children perform their play anyway.

"Though the bombers made headlines here two years ago, this night and these people are just as important a story....
When I leave, I come across an open drawing space covered with graffiti. Someone has scrawled two words: NO FEAR."
(Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here) 

Wounding The Beautiful Kind Of People. ...

Wounding the best kind of people. I've seen it, and sadly, I've probably done it too...

“The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.”
- Ernest Hemingway

Sadness On Earth.

“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

I Don't Live At All.....

"Why, darling, I don’t live at all when I’m not with you."
(Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms)

I Forgot You Are Suffering Quiet One.....

"You are so brave and quiet I forget you are suffering." (Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell To Arms.)