“When we have built something, the pride of man wants to look out over it all, like Nebuchadnezzar on the walls of Babylon, and somehow to take credit. This is the beginning of insanity.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 97
Ephraim is a Cake Half Turned
“The kind of ambition that wants to clamber over half-finished work in your initial radius of influence, in order to get that next promotion, is an ambition that is being driven by the wrong kind of motivation entirely.”
Ploductivity, p. 79
Christ Gives Dignity to Life
“If you want paganism without an attendant contempt for life at the margins, you want something that has never existed.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 95
Purified by Fire
“Every week you place all your ambitions on His altar and watch them ascend to Heaven in a column of smoke. When you get to your office Monday morning, they will be there on your desk, cleansed and waiting for you.”
Ploductivity, p. 78
Tracking Sin In
God “knows when we come to church and do not confess our sins honestly at the beginning of the service. He knows when we move through the rest of the service pretending that we didn’t track in what He knows we tracked in.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 93
And Be There as a Permanent Resident
“What is in the sermon must be in the preacher first.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 167
Where the Glory is Sought
“God created us for glory, and there is no way for us to find a switch that will turn that off. We are inveterate glory seekers, and the thing that distinguishes a good man from a bad man is what he finds glorious—not whether he finds something glorious.”
Ploductivity, p. 76
Which Would Be a Poor Exchange
“Glory is not something that fossilizes. When the Spirit departs, the glory departs, and the church building becomes Ichabod Memorial . . . Let us never exchange the glory of God for a fog of nuance.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, pp. 91-92
Small and Meaningful
“Remembering the finitude of your labors will keep you humble. Recognizing that your labors have a place in God’s cosmic intentions for the universe will keep you from thinking that your tiny labors are stupid labors. They are nothing of the kind.”
Ploductivity, p. 74
More Coming
“The privilege we have in this world is to yearn for the next.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 89