Poets & Saints

Philippians 3:12–14 (NRSVUE)

Not that I have already obtained this

or have already reached the goal,

but I press on to make it my own,

because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own,

but this one thing I do:

forgetting what lies behind

and straining forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal

for the prize of the heavenly call of God

in Christ Jesus.

I press on. I have not arrived.

John Bunyan, from Pilgrim's Progress

"His burden loosed from off his shoulders,

and fell from off his back,

and began to tumble,

and so continued to do,

till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre,

where it fell in,

and I saw it no more.

Then was Christian glad and lightsome."

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Matthew 7:13–14 (NRSVUE)

"Enter through the narrow gate;

for the gate is wide and the road is easy

that leads to destruction,

and there are many who take it.

For the gate is narrow and the road is hard

that leads to life,

and there are few who find it."

Truth is a road, and I am walking it.

Brian Zahnd, from The Last Train Out of Monkey Town

"Truth is not a laminated card

you carry in your pocket,

Truth is a long hard road

and you have to walk it."

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Acts 9:2 (NIV)

...and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus,

so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way,

whether men or women,

he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

I belong to the Way. I am on the road.

Jack Kerouac, from On the Road

"As we crossed the Colorado-Utah border

I saw God in the sky

in the form of huge gold sunburning clouds

above the desert

that seemed to point a finger at me and say,

'Pass here and go on,

you're on the road to heaven.'"

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John 1:14 (NIV)

The Word became flesh

and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory,

the glory of the one and only Son,

who came from the Father,

full of grace and truth.

The Word became flesh. This is the greatest wonder.

Brian Zahnd, from Unseen Existences

"In that numinous moment I whispered a prayer:

God, I want to spend the rest of my life

in a constant state of wonder.

What happened next was wholly unanticipated.

A reply whispered back,

This is the greatest wonder of all —

the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

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1 Corinthians 15:51 (NIV)

Listen, I tell you a mystery:

We will not all sleep,

but we will all be changed.

Mystery is where all knowing begins.

Albert Einstein

"The most beautiful thing we can experience

is the mysterious.

It is the source of all true art and science."

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Matthew 18:3 (NIV)

And he said:

"Truly I tell you,

unless you change and become like little children,

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

I am learning to see like a child again.

George MacDonald

"To cease to wonder is to fall plumb-down

from the childlike to the commonplace —

the most undivine of all moods intellectual.

Our nature can never be at home

among things that are not wonderful to us."

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Lamentations 5:15–16 (NIV)

Joy is gone from our hearts;

our dancing has turned to mourning.

The crown has fallen from our head.

Woe to us, for we have sinned!

God has never grown tired of making the world.

G.K. Chesterton, from Orthodoxy

"But perhaps God is strong enough

to exult in monotony.

It is possible that God says every morning,

'Do it again' to the sun;

and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon.

It may not be automatic necessity

that makes all daisies alike;

it may be that God makes every daisy separately,

but has never got tired of making them.

It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy;

for we have sinned and grown old,

and our Father is younger than we."

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Psalm 8:3–4 (NIV)

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?

Wonder is the arrow pointing me home.

Brian Zahnd, from Unseen Existences

"In the pilgrimage of the soul

toward the homeland where we've never been,

wonder is one of our most reliable way markers.

True wonder is a bright flecha

pointing the pilgrim toward heaven."

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Revelation 21:2–4 (NRSVUE)

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,

coming down out of heaven from God,

prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

"See, the home of God is among mortals.

He will dwell with them;

they will be his peoples,

and God himself will be with them;

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more;

mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

for the first things have passed away."

No one is finally lost. The road leads home.

C.S. Lewis, from The Problem of Pain

"I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish;

but their rescue consists

of being put back on the right road."

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Philippians 3:20 (NIV)

But our citizenship is in heaven.

And we eagerly await a Savior from there,

the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am not yet myself. I am becoming.

Pope Benedict XVI, from Introduction to Christianity

"Human persons are beings en route,

beings characterized by transition.

They are not yet themselves;

they must ultimately become themselves."

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