I don’t know if very many of you know who GK Chesterton is, but please read these quotes. They are very true and/or very funny.

• Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.

• “My country, right or wrong,” is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, “My mother, drunk or sober.”

• A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

• A room without books is like a body without a soul.

• An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.

• Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.

• By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece.

• Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.

• Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.

• I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.

• I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.

• I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.

• If there were no God, there would be no Atheists.

• It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.

• Journalism largely consists of saying ‘Lord Jones is Dead’ to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.

• Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.

• The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.

• The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion.

• There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.

• To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.

• There are no wise few. Every aristocracy that has ever existed has behaved, in all essential points, exactly like a small mob. -G. K. Chesterton, “Heretics”, 1905

• All slang is a metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry. -G. K. Chesterton, Defendant (1901)

• Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity. -G. K. Chesterton, Defendant (1901)

• The rich are the scum of the earth in every country. -G. K. Chesterton, Flying Inn (1914)

• There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person. -G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (1905)

• Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. -G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

• The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums. -G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy; p. 14

• It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem. -G. K. Chesterton, Scandal of Father Brown (1935)

• He may be mad, but there’s method in his madness. There nearly always is method in madness. It’s what drives men mad, being methodical. -G. K. Chesterton, The Fad of the Fisherman (1922)

• But a somewhat more liberal and sympathetic examination of mankind will convince us that the cross is even older than the gibbet, that voluntary suffering was before and independent of compulsory; and in short that in most important matters a man has always been free to ruin himself if he chose. -G. K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With the World; p. 118

Artist: Eli

Things I prayed for when I was young
That my father would love me like his only son
That my mother would be patient with me
And my sister would not leave
And if my grandpa could see me beyond his grave
That he’d think his little man was so great
That my hair would not stick up in weird places
And I’d be someone someday

Years go by so easily that sometimes I forget
Years go by and make me see that there’s no time for my regret
No time for my regret

Things I prayed for in my teens
That God would forgive all my evil deeds
That my father and my sister would come home
And mom could meet our needs
And if my grandpa could see me beyond his grave
That he’d say a prayer for his family’s sake
That my hair would stick up in weird places
And I’d be someone someday

Years go by so easily that sometimes I forget
Years go by and make me see that there’s no time for my regret
No time for my regret

Things I pray for now in my twenties
That God would still love me
That my dad would like his new family
That I could hug my sister, that my mom could rest
That my wife would still melt every time we kissed
And if my grandpa has seen me beyond his grave
How cold and silent he has remained
That my hair would not fall out in weird places
And I’d be someone someday

Years go by so easily that sometimes I forget
Years go by and make me see that there’s no time for my regret
No time for my regret

These are the things I prayed for
That I’d be someone someday

SCULLY: Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been six years
since my last confession, and since then I’ve drifted away from the
church. I’m not sure why exactly.

PRIEST: Have you come to confess?

SCULLY: No, um, there’s a man that I work with – a friend – and
usually I’m able to discuss these things with him … but not this.
Father, do you believe in miracles?

PRIEST: Of course, I see them every day … the rising sun,
the birth of a child …

SCULLY: No, I’m talking about events that defy explanation. Things
that … I believe helped me to save a young boy’s life. But now I
wonder if I saw them at all. If I didn’t just imagine them.

PRIEST: Why do you doubt yourself?

SCULLY: Because my partner didn’t see them. He didn’t … he didn’t
believe them. And usually he … he believes without question.

PRIEST: Maybe they weren’t meant for him to see.
Maybe they were only meant for you.

SCULLY: Is that possible?

PRIEST: With the Lord, anything is possible. Perhaps you saw
these things because you needed to.

SCULLY: To find my way back?

PRIEST: Sometimes we must come full circle to find the truth.
(Scully looks up at the priest) Why does that surprise you?

SCULLY: Mostly, it just makes me afraid.

PRIEST: Afraid?

SCULLY: Afraid that God is speaking … but that no one’s listening.

Artist: Shaded Red

Almighty God,
The Great I Am
Immoveable Rock,
Omnipotent powerful

Awesome Lord,
Victorious Warrior
Mighty Conquerer,
Commanding King of Kings
And the only time,
the only time I ever saw Him run
Was when

He ran to me,
Took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
And said “My son’s come home again”.
Looked in my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice
He said “Son, do you know I still love you?”

It caught me by surprise
when God ran

The day I left Home,
I knew I’d broken His heart
I wondered if
Things would ever be the same,

Then one night,
I remembered His love for me
And down that dusty road, ahead I could see
It was the only time,
the only time I ever saw Him run

Was when He ran to me,
Took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
And said “My son’s come home again”.
Looked in my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice
He said “Son, do you know I still love you?”

It caught me by surprise, It dropped me to my knees

When God ran

I wrote this message for my friend Nick. I felt I would post it here, not for the responses it could get, but for those that may need to read it. I dunno, here you go, out of context and in it’s full glory:

Hey man.. I’m going to tell you something: I know EXACTLY what you mean. I have thought the EXACT same things before. But I always come back to the same place. I saw a vision once…a vision of splendor…what couldn’t possibly be anything more than a glimpse of the glory of God. The vast amounts of love that I felt surrounding and surging through me, burning through me, in that instant, showed me that there is nothing to fear.. and yet, fear I do, sometimes. Because the vastness of forever is enormous. But then I think about forever and I realize that right now, this moment, is forever. We just labelled it with a moment, or a date or a time. Those that have come and gone before us, the saints, those that are in heaven, they’ve all been here before, too. We’re all in the same boat, though, brother, and we’ll all go through the same thing. All we can do, is live for the moment, because in a few seconds, things change forever. A look from a person. A chance meeting. An answered prayer. A smile from a stranger. A smile from a friend. A hug. Love. Love is also a sight unseen. It can be felt, and when you love something so much that you’re willing to fight to all the ends for it, you are experiencing the unconditional love of God, a taste of why you were created. To love. To fight for His name, as He fights for you. Man is Everlasting. We were given a very special gift. The very thing that allows us to know God’s majesty and infinite goodness. The ability to love one another, unselfishly and to use that to do something incredible. To create life. This is a very powerful and mighty gift that He’s placed in our hands. It is in this expression that we glorify His name and His love for us. When I think of heaven, now, I think of a nice park, where people are throwing frisbees, and footballs, and running, and playing, and sitting, and talking, and smiling, and laughing. People from all walks of life, all getting to know one another, and basking in the splendor of God’s love in a paradise that is perfect and free from sin. Families and friends are reunited. People have fashioned instruments from the trees there, and sing with the angels. The air is warm with a cool breeze, and truly it is Eden restored…for Eden was created for us, and while we failed the first time, this time there is no chance for that…for Heaven is without temptation toward evil.

You are not alone, my brother!