Topic: SELF
No sooner do we think we have assembled a comfortable
life than we find a piece of ourselves that has no place to
fit in.
-- Gail Sheehy, "Passages" (1976)
Comment: In Christ, there is no part of us that He does not touch and does not love. For
even in our sin, He loves us. No matter how far away from Him we fall, He is always there
reaching out to us with love.
We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the
people we used to be, whether we find them attractive
company or not. Otherwise they run up unannounced
and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door
at 4 AM of a bad night and demand to know who
deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to
make amends.
-- Joan Didion, "On Keeping a Notebook"
From Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968)
Comment: If we forget we are sinners, we lose our vigilance, and we backslide into sin
again.
You need only claim the events of your life to make
yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have
been and done, which may take some time, you are
fierce with reality.
-- Florida Scott-Maxwell, "Measure of My Days" (1968)
Comment: When you face all you have been and done, truly face it, then you must crumble
under the weight of the guilt. However, there is a way to erase all you have been and
done. The way to erase all you have been and done is to take all you are and all you
possess to the foot of Christ's suffering on the Cross. Before Him, set all this stuff
down, kneel down before Him, and seek His forgiving love. In some supernatural process we
cannot explain, all this stuff melts down and disappears. What is left is just you and
Him. What is left is a new you without the baggage of what you possess and what you have
been and done.
Know thyself.
-- Socrates
Comment: When you finally know yourself you come to know a sinner. What then? Then you go
to the Cross and repent, casting off this self that you came to know. In ways we cannot
fully understand, a new self in Christ is born.
I plunge into myself and all things know.
-- Sufism
Comment: There is no limit to what we can know. There is a limit to our time on earth so
we cannot know all things. Only our Lord knows all things.
The kingdom of heaven is within.
-- Jesus
Comment: God lives in the Kingdom of Heaven. Angels live within the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus lives in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Be a lamp unto yourself.
-- Buddha
Comment: The only true Light of the world and to you is Jesus Christ, only begotten Son of
God. Without Him, there is immense darkness.