“Life to me is meant to be a journey towards fulfilment of a life purpose.”
“Life is a calling to a specific assignment. When you are not called by God to what you are doing, it’s not likely you will produce proofs.”
“Hope is not based on the off-chance that things ‘might’ work out for us, for that kind of thinking is based on the perception that God’s will can be taken captive by our circumstances. Rather, hope is based on a God for whom circumstances are the working out of His will.”
“Pray is not the exercise of the faint-hearted, for it takes more determination than we can imagine to set aside the press of our agendas in order to partner with God in the working out of His.”
“Neurosurgery attracted me as much for its intertwining of brain & consciousness as for its intertwining of life & death.”
“If I am a compilation of nothing but myself, I will have lived a life where I became nothing more than myself. And while it might be true that we all begin with ourselves, to end there is to end in a terribly small place.”
“If I am living out a lesser version of myself, I have allowed the fear of ‘who I could be’ to fall prey to the apathy of ‘who I am.’ And if ‘what I could be’ dies the death of cowardice, ‘who I am’ never really lived at all.”
“Sometimes the path is hidden by the foliage that surrounds us, the trees that have fallen all around us, and the winds that whip the wilderness wild. And while the foliage and the trees and the winds might hide that precious path for a moment, we must remember that God birthed each of us with a destination so utterly amazing that no wilderness possesses the foliage, or the trees, or the winds to ever destroy the path to that destination.”
“Eowyn to Aragorn: ’Too often have I heard of duty [...]. May I not now spend my life as I will? ‘Few may do so with honour. ‘Shall I always be left behind when the Riders depart, to mind the house while they win renown, and find food and beds when they return?’ ‘A time may come soon,’ said he, ‘when none will return. Then there will be need of valour without renown, for none shall remember the deeds that are done in the last defence of your homes. Yet the deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.’ […] ‘I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death.’ ‘What do you fear, lady?’ he asked. ‘A cage,’ she said. ‘To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.”
“Knowing oneself has tremendous importance for all of the major decisions one might make. Making life choices that are in line with who one is – who one was created to be – leads to a more fulfilling life. I know that self-fulfillment has become a dirty word for those who rightly understand that life is not all about me, but about a greater purpose. This is true. At the same time, each of us is created as a unique individual with unique gifts, talents, and callings that were designed for a purpose. Self-fulfillment doesn t necessarily mean selfish fulfillment. It can mean fulfillment of all that one was created to be. The satisfaction one feels at having achieved one s rightful desires is no more selfish or wrong a thing than the satisfaction of the apple tree in bringing forth the fruit it was designed to bear.”
“Still my heart is set on the higher calling.”
“My heart is set on the higher calling in Christ Jesus.”
“Being a Gatekeeper wasn t just a calling or a job, it was who I was...who I was meant to be.”
“A ‘cause’ that serves our purpose is, in reality, an ‘agenda’ that we’ve attempted to make noble by dressing it up in the finery of a cause. But as my Dad used to say, you can’t put perfume on a pig.”
“The best path is the one that’s not there because we are in the process of creating it.”
“My passion always runs ahead of my abilities. But in the process of keeping a close second, my abilities get a great workout.”
“They undertook to fight against the Turk under the name of Christ, and taught men and stirred them up to do this, as though our people were an army of Christians against the Turks, who were enemies of Christ; and this is straight against Christ’s doctrine and name. It is against His doctrine, because He says that Christians shall not resist evil, shall not fight or quarrel, not take revenge or insist on rights. It is against His name, because in such an army there are scarcely five Christians, and perhaps worse people in the eyes of God than are the Turks; and yet they would all bear the name of Christ. This is the greatest of all sins and one that no Turk commits, for Christ’s name is used for sin and shame and thus dishonored. This would be especially so if the pope and the bishops were in the war, for they would put the greatest shame and dishonor on Christ’s name, since they are called to fight against the devil with the Word of God and with prayer, and would be deserting their calling and office and fighting with the sword against flesh and blood. This they are not commanded, but forbidden to do.”