relevant reading…

Thom Yorke is on the cover of the Nov/Dec issue of Relevant … covered in chocolate … was reading through it today and noted a few things::

‘According to CareerBuilder.com, 21% of people making more than $100,000 a year say they’re living paycheck to paycheck …’

Random quote (p.18). Serious. What is happening… 

‘Never taught the importance of encountering God daily through the Bible and prayer, many people who have had a genuine, heartfelt encounter with God have allowed the experience to grow stale. Living meeting to meeting is not just hard-it’s counter to a vibrant Christian life…
That’s not to criticize the meetings-they often stoke the embers in those individuals’ hearts. It’s only to point out that it’s individuals, seeking God and reflecting His glory, who move the hearts of most individuals. God is actively placing individuals stoked with the fires of personal revival into the woodpile in the places where a fire has a far better chance of breaking out.’  –randy bohlender, ‘pursuing personal revival’ (p.24)

This idea of ‘living on yesterday’s manna’ seems to be the theme of the month for me. I love the affirmation that the ‘mountain-top experience’ is real, but the issue is teaching people how to carry on once they are home again. Hello, sound like a job description to anyone? Hmmm… 

 

‘It’s amazing how easy empathy is from a distance. Kids far too young for the dirty reality of surprise pregnancies and painful miscarriages experience these things all the time, and my heart breaks for them when they’re not sitting next to me on the bus.’ –adam smith, ‘bus stops & missed opportunities’ (p26)

I read about this story first on a friend’s blog. This man, Adam, was waiting for a bus, and this teenage couple waiting there near him is distraught over having their second miscarriage. They asked him to sit by them, just to talk with them, to be a friend to them … and he is annoyed. Tired. Ready to get out of there. And far too often that statement is true… I’m all about being the listening ear and helping the hurting and the oppressed — until it is an inconvenience to me.