Great Throughts Treasury

"We are not wise enough, pure enough, or strong enough to aim and sustain such a single motive over a lifetime. That way lies fanaticism or failure. But if the single motive is the master motivation of God's calling, the answer is yes. In any and all situations, both today and tomorrow's tomorrow, God's call to us is the unchanging and ultimate whence, what, why, and whither of our lives. Calling is a 'yes' to God that carries a 'no' to the chaos of modern demands. Calling is the key to tracing the story line of our lives and unriddling the meaning of our existence in a chaotic world."

"We betray our modern arrogance and forget the place of mystery in God's dealing with us."

"We cannot find God without God. We cannot reach God without God. We cannot satisfy God without God ? which is another way of saying that all our seeking will fall short unless God starts and finishes the search. The decisive part of our seeking is not our human ascent to God, but his descent to us. Without God?s descent there is no human ascent. The secret of the quest lies not in our brilliance but in his grace."

"What is undeniable is that when comforts and convenience sap our energies and idealism, inactivity secretes sloth in to our minds like a poison in the blood."

"What the framers believed should complement and reinforce the Constitution and its separation of powers is the distinctive moral ecology that is at the heart of ordered liberty."

"When something more that human seeking is needed if seeking is to be satisfied, then calling means that seekers themselves are sought."