::: blog

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”  - C.S. Lewis

“I am afraid we have eyes bigger than our stomachs, and more curiosity than capacity. We embrace everything, but we clasp only wind.” — Michel de Montaigne

I think it really only comes down to a question of time. Pile up the amount of food someone eats over a lifetime and I doubt their eyes will desire more. Capacity is similarly time-sensitive and perhaps the saddest state of being is discovered by those who outlive their curiosity. And finally, the “clasping of wind”: this is only true if we believe that we lack time and consequently dart from one thing to the next, always beginning and abandoning but never loving and living.

Really, what Montainge is saying is this: “I am affraid we don’t have enought time.”

I say we do, but we just need heavenly patience and perserverance.

( this was in an email that my grandpa sent out to all the family. he loves to write poetry, and always is writing poems for birthdays and holidays. he even has a blog where he posts stuff, check it out here ).

As we approach this special time
And contemplate God’s gift sublime,
Let us look at Christ’s life as the way
That we should live our lives each day.

We know that He overcame each trial.
He always walked the second mile.
He healed the sick and raised the dead.
He made sure the hungry were fed.

“Come follow me,” was His request.
“I promise you that you’ll be blest.”
In crucifixion, He paid the price
So each of us could be blessed twice.

Resurrection is for all mankind.
Not one soul will be left behind.
He made it so that if we endeavor
To be like Him, we’ll live forever.

At Christmas time our thoughts are turned toward family and friends because of how each has blessed our lives.  We are grateful for how we feel about the purpose of life and the opportunity to live in this beautiful world with people who love us.  Our heart goes out to those who are seeking the same and pray that they will find the peace that we enjoy in the knowledge that God does live and that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Redeemer of all mankind.  The greatest gift that can be given is the promise of eternal life.  “For God so loved the world that he gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not parish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

We wish each of you a Merry Christmas and a New Year full of many blessings.

Lots of love and best wishes, VerNon and Bernice Bingham

the german thought of wunder,
jaw-breaking pipes of lead.

when will the muddy waters clear?
when will we see clearly what lies ahead?

now we look through a glass darkly,
but then…. then we shall see face to face.

someday this will all make sense i hope.
to me you are missed.

and now each night i count
the stars…
and each night i get the same number.
and when they will not come to be counted-
i count the holes they leave

–imamu amiri baraka–

that money talks,
i’ll not deny
i heard it once
it said goodbye.

Today at church, John Lilegren gave a talk on structure and order in the Kingdom of God and quoted the following poem, which he found in a talk given by Thomas S. Monson in April 1986 General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also know as the “Mormons“), entitled “Call of Duty.”

Father, where shall I work today?
And my love flowed warm and free.
Then He pointed out a tiny spot
And said, “Tend that for me.”
I answered quickly, “Oh no; not that!
Why, no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done;
Not that little place for me.”
And the word He spoke, it was not stern;
He answered me tenderly:
“Ah, little one, search that heart of thine.
Art thou working for them or for me?
Nazareth was a little place,
And so was Galilee.”

(Meade McGuire)

The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But is does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world more habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as our culture defined it.

—David Orr

a quote from a write, professor, person… if you want to read more of these kind of quotes, feel free…
just go here —-> http://www.stolaf.edu/green/words/quotes.html

I’m Going to Send You Down to Earth

“I’m going to send you down to Earth,”
God said, to me, one day.
“I’m giving you what man calls birth;
Tonight, you start away;
I want you, there, to live with men,
Until I call you back again.”

I trembled as I heard Him speak,
Yet knew that I must go.
I felt God’s hand upon my cheek
And whished that I might know.
Just what, on Earth, would be my task,
And timidly I dared to ask.

“Tell me before I start away,
What Thou wouldst have me do?
What message wouldst Thou have me speak?
When shall my work be through?
That I might serve Thee better on the Earth,
Please tell me the purpose of my birth.”

God smiled and gently, sweetly said,
“Oh, you’ll find your task.
I want you free, life’s path to tread,
So do not stay to ask.
Remember this, if your best you’ll do,
That I will ask no more of you.”

Often as my work I do,
So common place and grim.
I sit and sigh and wish I knew,
If I were pleasing Him.
I wonder if in all my Earthly test,
If I have truly tried to do my best?”