Words about change

"The greatest problems of our time are not technological, for these we handle fairly well. They are not even political or economic, because the difficulties in these areas, glaring as they may be, are largely derivative. The greatest problems are moral and spiritual, and unless we can make some progress in these realms, we may not even survive. This is how advanced cultures have declined in the past."
- D. Elton Trueblood from the forward to Celebration of Discipline.

This statement did a good job verbalizing how I feel about the many issues in our world today. Not that I don't find things like politics important - I do. But in the end, I'm increasingly convinced that any long-lasting solutions must begin with spiritual and moral resolutions.

"Our world is hungry for genuinely changed people."

This just struck me as simply true. Nothing is more dramatic and motivating than deep and genuine change in a person you know.

"Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."

"Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself"
- Tolstoy

I must admit that I am as guilty of this as anyone else. I spend too much time thinking about changing everyone else, and too little time concerned with how Christ might be calling me to continue to change and become more and more like him.


Posting quotes is the second laziest way to blog (posting videos would be the first in my opinion), and today I am quite happy to take the easy route. It's also a simple way to recognize that often the things that are worthwhile thinking about originate outside of myself.

All of these are from Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, and are his unless otherwise noted.

Abscence

So I've been a little absent from the blog lately. What with a visit from my parents-in-law, a trip to a conference in Manila, raising pressure and stress as this semester of language school coming to a close soon, and not to mention raising three energy-absorbing kids - I've had little will to pound out another blog post. Faith, however, has been good about blogging - especially with pictures and the happenings of our family. You can go to her blog to fill in the last several weeks if you havn't already.

Here is a picture from the Philippines to entice you to check her blog for more.
We had an excellent time at International Team's leadership conference in Manilla. It was a long way to travel for a short 5 nite conference, but it was worth it. We were really encouraged by many people we met and heard from. Manila is a very fun and unique place. We were especially touched by the Filipino missionaries that are spreading across the globe to serve Jesus.