One Little Word

Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody’s power, and is not easy.

Aristotle

A restorer is not an analyst or a critic or an observer. A restorer is a doer, an actor, an agent of God.

And

Our perceptions of the world are often made on an instinctive, emotional level. The church has over-valued logic and undervalued aesthetic. If we don’t deal with this, our imagination becomes captivated by another story (a contrary story). Liturgies are tactile stories, embodied poems, that captivate our imagine. They don’t feed information. They feed our love.

And

We will not recreate the world if we are constantly reinventing worship. We need tradition for innovation. We need to remember and recover the true story of the whole world, which is contained in historic worship.

And

When you are immersed in these practices, you are reformed.

James K. A. Smith
Calvin College
Q, Washington D.C.
April 11, 2012

There are currently 44 million people in the United States living below the poverty level. Poverty makes a person vulnerable.

And

The United States is the only country in the world that condemns 13 and 14 year olds to die in prison.

And

The opposite of poverty is not wealth. It is justice.

Bryan Stevenson
Equal Justice Initiative
Q, Washington D.C.
April 11, 2012

DB: “There currently are half as many extremely poor people today as was the case 30 years ago. Sustained national efforts make a difference. God has made it possible, in our time, to end extreme poverty, and calls us to involvement.”

And

SB: “If you want to follow Jesus, you will be found on the margins with those who suffer.”

And

DB: “What distresses me is that I don’t think our country is serious about reducing poverty.”

David Beckmann (Bread for the World)
Stephan Bauman (World Relief)
Q, Washington D.C.
April 11, 2012

I would recommend to you three practical almost Amish practices. (1) Keep the Sabbath. (2) Unplug. Is there any technology distracting you from family, faith or God? (3) Take a walk. Slow down, see the world, connect with a neighbor or creation, have a conversation with your spouse.

Nancy Sleeth
Blessed Earth
Q, Washington D.C.
April 11, 2012

Violence is much more than a break in human relationships. It is blasphemous. Preemptive love remakes the world.

And

Violence unmakes the world, but preemptive love unmakes violence.

And

We have so personalized and romanticized our relationship with God that we cannot imagine a God who would want us to suffer for his name.

Jeremy Courtney
Preemptive Love Coalition
Q, Washington D.C.
April 11, 2012

Abraham Kyper was a nineteenth century Dutch theologian.

If Christians are not included in every sphere of culture, how is God going to reconcile these things to himself?

And

There is not one square inch of creation over which Christ does not cry, “Mine!”.

Anthony Bradley
The King’s College of New York
Q, Washington D.C.
April 11, 2012