(no subject)
School is usually the most lonely part of my day. And by usually I think I mean always. So today I was set to break that tendency. The morning was as lonely as usual, but in the afternoon I brought a book to read. Laura and I bought Restless Faith last week and I decided to start it today. I'm basically in love so far, and hopefully it will continue to be wonderful.
"One summer evening, I walked outside with the cordless phone and called a friend who had spoken wise words to me in previous times of chaos. He answered the phone, and my desperate words spilled out. When the flood stopped pouring over the dam, there was silence on the other end.
After a few seconds, he interrupted the awkward quiet and asked, "Winn, are you willing to be wrong?"
The question seemed out of order, as if he had missed the point or hadn't heard the weight of my words. However, his query couldn't have been more skillfully lodged, and those seven simple words probed long-forgotten contours of my heart. I was willing to endure many things: difficulty, discipline, hard work, challenges, and numerous other noble-sounding feats of the will. Yet there was one thing I would never accept: being wrong. My life, my pursuits, and my view of God all held a common assumption: It was my responsibility to get it right...
My obsession with being right and conquering God is a culturally acceptable way to feed my addiction for control and a clumsy mask for my feverish attempt to keep at bay the foreboding possibility that I might not be as well out together as I put on. My friend's well placed question was more than an invitation to recognize my limitations and accept a nice dose of humility. It was an invitation to step into a deeper reality of God where I would sit under him rather than over him and any attempts to control him would seem as foolish as trying to bottle the Pacific..."-Winn Collier
I'm quite sorry to everyone who I may have neglected at the retreat due to my illness. You all deserve my attention and I will make it up to you.
Oh the joy of going to work...
"One summer evening, I walked outside with the cordless phone and called a friend who had spoken wise words to me in previous times of chaos. He answered the phone, and my desperate words spilled out. When the flood stopped pouring over the dam, there was silence on the other end.
After a few seconds, he interrupted the awkward quiet and asked, "Winn, are you willing to be wrong?"
The question seemed out of order, as if he had missed the point or hadn't heard the weight of my words. However, his query couldn't have been more skillfully lodged, and those seven simple words probed long-forgotten contours of my heart. I was willing to endure many things: difficulty, discipline, hard work, challenges, and numerous other noble-sounding feats of the will. Yet there was one thing I would never accept: being wrong. My life, my pursuits, and my view of God all held a common assumption: It was my responsibility to get it right...
My obsession with being right and conquering God is a culturally acceptable way to feed my addiction for control and a clumsy mask for my feverish attempt to keep at bay the foreboding possibility that I might not be as well out together as I put on. My friend's well placed question was more than an invitation to recognize my limitations and accept a nice dose of humility. It was an invitation to step into a deeper reality of God where I would sit under him rather than over him and any attempts to control him would seem as foolish as trying to bottle the Pacific..."-Winn Collier
I'm quite sorry to everyone who I may have neglected at the retreat due to my illness. You all deserve my attention and I will make it up to you.
Oh the joy of going to work...