The Long Walk Home

‘The promise of deliverance, the assurance that we are accepted by almighty God, is not tied to the intensity of our faith, or to the consistency of our faith, or to the purity of our faith, but to the object of our faith. When we approach God in prayer, our plea is not that we have been good that day, or that we have just come from a Christian meeting full of praise, or that we try harder, but that Christ has died for us. Against that plea, Satan has no riposte’ – D.Carson

“The assumption of Spirituality is that always God is doing something before I know it. So the task is not to get God to do something I think needs to be done but to become aware of what God is doing so that I can respond to it and participate and take delight in it.” (E.Peterson)

“Is there a way out? I don’t think there is – at least not on my side. It often seems that the more I try to disentangle myself from the darkness, the darker it becomes. I need light, but that light has to conquer my darkness, and that I cannot bring about myself. I cannot forgive myself, I cannot make myself feel loved. By myself I cannot leave the land of my anger, I cannot bring myself home nor can I create communion on my own. I can desire it, hope for it, wait for it, yes, pray for it. But my true freedom I cannot fabricate for myself. That must be given to me. I am lost. I must be found and brought home by the shepherd who goes out to me.

The story of the prodigal son is the story of a God who goes searching for me and who doesn’t rest until he has found me. He urges and he pleads.  He begs me to stop clinging to the powers of death and to let myself be embraced by arms that will carry me to the place where I will find the life I most desire…

…God has appeared in my darkness, urged me to come home, and declared in a voice filled with affection: “You are with me always, and all I have is yours.”

Henri Nouwen- The Return of the Prodigal Son.

“Our conversations are never easy, but as I-we-get older, we are finding that our conversations must be spoken. A need burns inside us to share with others what we are feeling Beyond a certain age, sincerity ceases to feel pornographic. It is as though the coolness that marked out youth is itself a type of retrovirus that can only leave you feeling empty. Full of holes.”

Douglas Coupland- Life after God

“And in his heart, I think, he’s now learned what I came to believe, which is, as I’ve said all along, that the sun may burn brightly, and the faces of children may be plump and achingly sweet, but in the air we breathe, in the water we drink and in the food we share, there will always be darkness in this world.”

Douglas Coupland- Hey Nostradamus

(sorry Becci, maybe the uplifting/encouraging ones will return soon ;-))

Get hold of this. It’s pretty much the best book understanding depression and it’s affect on your head. The illustrations are brillant as are the one line simple explanations of what goes on when black dog comes to visit:

“When the rest of the world seemed to be enjoying life, I could only see it through the black dog” (illustration of someone with sunglasses shaped like black dogs.)

“Activities that used to bring me pleasure suddenly ceased to.”

“He liked to wake me up with very repetitive, negative thinking.”

The authors story is here.

“The beast in me Is caged by frail and fragile bars Restless by day And by night rants and rages at the stars God help the beast in me

The beast in me Has had to learn to live with pain And how to shelter from the rain And in the twinkling of an eye Might have to be restrained God help the beast in me

Sometimes it tries to kid me That it’s just a teddy bear And even somehow manage to vanish in the air And that is when I must beware Of the beast in me that everybody knows They’ve seen him out dressed in my clothes Patently unclear It it’s New York or New Year God help the beast in me

The beast in me”

(No-one can beat Johnny Cash for telling it like it is. No-one.)