All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
"Myth wants power; revelation reveals the true power of God in the most extreme powerlessness. Myth wants knowledge; the Word of God asks for constant faith and, only within that faith, a growing, reverent understanding. The revelation of God’s Word is gentle patience amidst the intractable tensions of life. Error never shows itself in its naked reality, in order not to be discovered. On the contrary, it dresses elegantly, so that the unwary may be led to believe that it is more truthful than truth itself.”
Irenaeus of Lyons, The Scandal of The Incarnation
“We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.
But we are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased."
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
"Far be it from us thus to fight against God's gracious purposes to man, and to make the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died! Let us acknowledge all to be Christians, who have not by open word or deed renounced their fellowship with us, and let us try to lead them on into all truth.
And for ourselves, let us endeavour to enter more and more fully into the meaning of our own prayers and professions; let us humble ourselves for the very little we do, and the poor advance we make; let us avoid unnecessary display of religion; let us do our duty in that state of life to which God has called us.
Whether rich or poor, learned or unlearned, walking by this rule, we shall become, at length, true saints, sons of God. We shall be upright and perfect, lights in the world, the image of Him who died that we might be conformed to His likeness."
John Henry Newman, Profession Without Hypocrisy
"The power of the world is great, and I am just a sinner. But I know who I love, and that I want to be a part of that love, forever. And so I have chosen my way, and struggle on to that outcome, one day at a time. And this is how it is and how it will be for all who have chosen the Way. Love is our destination, but while we are here on earth it can only be a journey, a continuing way of life, as we struggle on as best we can, to a final holy rest, and peace at the last."
Jesse, Obedience Without Love: The Leaven of the Pharisees, 5 April 2017
"The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
This great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. The Incarnation is the ultimate reason why the service of God cannot be divorced from the service of man.In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all. Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
The early church did not refer to themselves as 'Christians.' They were known as the people of 'the Way.'
Redemption is not a singular event. One makes their initial decision to follow, and then they take up their cross and follow Him, over a period of time, to the end of their lives here.
And so it takes work, and patience, and a willingness to admit that one has fallen, and will ask for and accept the grace to get back up again and continue on,.
Some don't. Many dry up and fall away as the going gets harder, and periods of 'spiritual dryness' occur.
And some more are choked from the faith by worries, and desires, and envy and pride and worldly idols.
But it is a way, and the ongoing work of repentance and forgiveness will sustain us.
This was a wide ranging day. The markets are struggling to estimate and price in risk, but there are powerful forces working against genuine price discovery. They are known as Wall St, Bessent, and Trump.
Gold had an unusually wide trading range again, finishing up nearly to even. Silver always has a volatile day it seems, but held on to a gain.
The metals go up at night, and then London and NY financial centers come in.
When I was a younger man, one day I had a bit of a shocking revelation. As I looked at the people around me, I realized that when the oceans dry up, and the stars burn out, and all the works of man are crumbled into the fires of an expanding sun in its death throes, their souls would continue on, radiant and beautiful.
How can we value things more than people if we understand something so basic to what we believe?
I think C. S. Lewis expresses this well in the first quotation above. People get lost in the weeds of their divisive speculations, and completely miss the big picture, and the implications of the Incarnation.
I have to leave early today, to take Princess Daisy for her monthly vet visit and allergy shot, yada yada.
I will adjust for any after hours movements in the charts tomorrow.
Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday. Or not. The US federal data releases are becoming about as erratic as Trump's foreign policy.
Have a pleasant evening.
