QUOTES

From Christianity Today (December 2013 issue)
“When the Holy Spirit starts hovering, watch your back.  Yes, the Spirit comes to assure us that our sins are forgiven (peace!) and that we are joined to Christ (love!) and that we have a blessed future with God our Father (hope!).  But if the Spirit has started a new work in our lives – whether we call it new creation or a new birth – we can be sure we’ll know holy chaos. . . . Few things are more unexpected, shocking, even troublesome – ah, but also more glorious.  As much as we wish each other peace and goodwill this Christmas season, if we have any sense of the why things really work, we’ll wish each other a little holy chaos as well.”  By Mark Galli, in the article Tidings of Chaos and Joy, p. 47)

From Exodus 14:14 (NIV):  “The Lord will fight for you.  You need only to be still.”

From Leadership Journal  (Fall, 2013)
“Do you ever feel as if you’re moving so fast through life that you don’t really see the people around you? Or you do see them, but you feel annoyed at them far too often?  Do you feel you don’t have time to connect?  Ironically busyness (even when you’re busy serving people) can be isolating.

Slow down.  For a day, or even a morning, try this:  Do one thing at a time.  Use ‘Time Chunking,’ the practice of allocating a chunk of time to one task, then moving on to the next ‘chunk.’  Multi-tasking actually decreases efficiency.

Take time to look into the eyes of the people you are meeting with, noticing their non-verbal communication.  Listen without composing your next thought.” (By Keri Wyatt Kent in the article Battling Spiritual Loneliness, p. 53)

Bonriki International Airport, Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands, Kiribati (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From Bloomberg Business Week
“Kiribati is a flyspeck of a United Nations member state, a collection of 33 islands necklaced across the central Pacific.  Thirty-two of the islands are low-lying atolls; the 33rd called Banaba, is a raised coral island that long ago was strip-mined for its seabird-guano-phosphates.  If scientists are correct, the ocean will swallow most of Kiribati before the end of the century and perhaps much sooner than that.  Water expands as it warms, and the oceans have lately received colossal quantities of melted ice.  A recent study found that the oceans are absorbing heat 15 times faster than they have at any point during the past 10,000 years.  Before the rising pacific drowns these atolls, though it will infiltrate, and irreversibly poison, their already inadequate fresh water.  The apocalypse could come even sooner for Kiribati if violent storms, of the sort that recently destroyed parts of the Philippines, strike its islands.  For all of these reason the 1-3,000 citizens of Kiribati may soon become refugees, perhaps the first mass movement of people fleeing the consequences of global warming rather than war or famine.”  (By Jeffrey Goldberg in the article The Drowning of Kiribati, page 54)

And lest you think I’m just a boring nerd
John Grisham’s new novel, Sycamore Row, is one of his most intriguing.  Grisham fans, don’t miss it!