Tag Quotes

Social Media is Full of Absurdities

Todd R 2 Comments

Social media is a great place to share short bursts of pontification, whether in memes, quips, quotes, or what have you.  Sometimes a little more research may do some good, though.  Several times recently I’ve seen the quote below shared by people protesting what they see as people in power playing loose with information to pompously push pernicious policies that are precariously close to imperious:

“Truly, whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” – Voltaire

Since this quote was often posted by Christians, they might be appalled by the context of the quote:

“Formerly there were those who said: You believe things that are incomprehensible, inconsistent, impossible because we have commanded you to believe them; go then and do what is unjust because we command it. Such people show admirable reasoning. Truly, whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. If the God‐given understanding of your mind does not resist a demand to believe what is impossible, then you will not resist a demand to do wrong to that God‐given sense of justice in your heart. As soon as one faculty of your soul has been dominated, other faculties will follow as well. And from this derives all those crimes of religion which have overrun the world.”

On the positive side, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”[1]  Being a Christian requires holding on tight to things that seem absurdities to the world, but it also means we have the “God-given sense of justice” that requires we show mercy to those whose absurdities are different from our own.

If I post anything that seems absurd, please let me know, mercifully… ( I think Abraham Lincoln said something similar on his website)

[1] 1 Corinthians 1:25

Using Your Talent: A Quint of Quotes

Todd R 1 Comment

Fellow travelers,

Here is another “Quint of Quotes,” or five somewhat related sayings, from my collection.  I hope you find them interesting and thought-provoking.  Enjoy!

Photo by Tom Bradley on Unsplash

“Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best” – Henry Van Dyke

“We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa

“It is not your business to succeed, but to do right. When you have done so the rest lies with God.” – C. S. Lewis

“All God’s giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.” – James Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission

“No one can do everything, but everyone can do something” – Max Lucado

Is Freedom Good? A Quint of Quotes

Todd R 5 Comments

Fellow travelers,

Here is another “Quint of Quotes” from my collection.  Five somewhat related quotes, but not exactly in agreement.  Hope you find them interesting and thought-provoking.

“To admire mere choice is to refuse to choose” – G.K. Chesterton

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.” – William Allen White

“But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.” – Edmund Burke, Irish statesman

“Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering” – Ivan, in The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Battle Between Good and Evil: A Quint of Quotes

Todd R 1 Comment

Dear fellow travelers,

Here is another “Quint of Quotes” from my collection, five quotes on the theme of good vs evil:

“The majority of us begin with the bigger problems outside and forget the one inside.  A man has to learn ‘the plague of his own heart’ before his own problems can be solved” – Oswald Chambers

“I think the battle between good and evil is fought largely within the individual human heart, by the decisions that we make. It’s not like evil dresses up in black clothing and you know, they’re really ugly” – Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin

“When people do bad things in the name of religion people say religion is inherently bad; When people do bad things in the name of profit people say profit is inherently bad; When people do bad things in the name of science people say science is inherently bad; When people do bad things in the name of government people say government is inherently bad; but have you noticed that every one of these is ‘people do bad things’ but when you say people do bad things because people are inherently bad, people say you are a mean person and out of your mind.” – Anonymous internet comment

“The line separating good and evil passes, not through states, not between political parties either, but right through all human hearts.”  -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” – the apostle Paul, in Romans 7:21-25

Strength in Trials: A Quint of Quotes

Todd R 3 Comments

Dear fellow travelers,

Here is another “Quint of Quotes” from my collection, on the theme of suffering and trials:

“God had one Son without sin; but He has no son without temptation.” – Charles Spurgeon, on Luke 11:4

“When God permits His children to go through the furnace, He keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat.” – Warren Wiersbe, on 1 Peter 1:6-7

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” – C.S. Lewis, in The Problem of Pain

“Some things in the economy of grace are measured; for instance our vinegar and gall are given us with such exactness that we never have a single drop too much, but of the salt of grace no stint is made” – Charles Spurgeon

“Cheer up; you’re a lot worse off than you think you are, but in Jesus you’re far more loved than you could have ever imagined.” – Jack Miller