Sunday, June 27, 2021

Brazen by Sean Feucht

I really, really enjoyed this book, even though it is pretty "out of the box". I really identified with a lot of it. I felt the same things with my youth ministry "failure" that Sean Feucht felt with his running for Congress failure. God, why did you call me to this to have me fail? I liked how vulnerable he was about all his emotions and fears. I liked how his church members were against his marriage. Sometimes well-meaning advice isn't the best. I liked everything about it! Here are some of my favorite quotes: 


"My belief in the power of God manifested right there in the midst of people's desperate need." pg 16


"Music, however, has a way of bringing people together and crossing the divide. Those times in the village with my guitar broke down all our walls and misconceptions about one another. I know I came in with so many wrong perceptions and stigmas about the culture, the people, and the religion. But singing each day with my guitar and a crowd of Afghanis changed everything for me. The power of music was bringing us together. The power of music was bringing us together and God's presence showed up every single time." pg 35


"God was removing a spirit of performance and man-pleasing from me. He was inviting me into a realm of being known by Him, and killing the desire to be known by people." pg 41


"This was the scenario and the very question that we thought we would never face. Yet, it is also the very question every believer faces as we contemplate our personal loyalty to Jesus." pg 82


"Although it was painful to leave before the dream was fulfilled, we knew the seed God called us to sow would one day yield a harvest." pg 92


"The tone of his voice and the lightness of his eyes changed the entire atmosphere in that crazy situation that day. I looked over at Kate and said, 'My new life goal is be that happy and joyful when I am his age!' From that day forward, our relationship began to grow." pg 98


"It was not that I stopped believing in God, but it was His ability to heal and care for the things of my heart that I questioned." pg 109


"But I knew there was no one kinder, gentler, more humble, or more deserving of a miracle than my dad. He was the most blameless and meek human I had ever met. And God didn't heal him. I was very offended." pg 109


"I did not want easy answers to my questions, either. Instead, I needed lasting, deep understanding." pg 110


"I know that God is not afraid of, embarrassed by, or upset with our questions. In fact, He welcomes them. Truly the only way for us to live authentically before an authentic God is to 'work out our salvation with fear and trembling' (Philippians 2:12). King David always kept the conversation going, and it eventually led to a resolution - even if if wasn't the resolution he wanted." pg 111


"Those who have walked through extravagant loss understand that the last thing people need when walking through the dark night of the soul is answers. They just need friends." pg 113


"Just before we finished our conversation, Bill turned to me and said, 'If you want to have a peace that passes all understanding through this loss, you must lose your right to understand." pg 113


"Not only was it a profound experience for our family, but we felt that it was also pivotal to show the world that God can meet you at the end of your fear if you simply become obedient to His voice." pg 137


"All the while, my kids were unaware of the danger they were living in and actually never even asked. It was a massive lesson to me to becomes like a little child to inherit the kingdom God was bringing. My own kids were the greatest agents of healing, kindness, and joy to the refugees. They showed up with smiles, toys, candy, and the occasional jet-lagged meltdown as well. But they thrived in that environment and Kate and I went to sleep every night astonished at the light they carried with them into the war zone. It was a testimony of God's grace." pg 137


"I was praying and fasting to see if what God was doing inside of me was the beginning of another massive transition. Even thought things were going great with my family, our home, our prayer and mission organizations, and the music label, there was a new level or risk God was calling us to. I just had no idea what it was. I wanted to live on the edge again with God. I felt very safe in that season and being with the Saudi underground church reminded me of how I was called to live - with brazen faith." pg 146


"After traveling to over sixty nations around the world, however, and understanding the cultural, political, economic, and social paradigms of so many other places, I began to have a greater sense of patriotism." pg 147


"'You should let your wife make the final decision. She needs to know what you are stepping into. Whatever she says, goes.' That was the moment when I knew I could trust them." pg 151


"We had experienced a fair amount of resistance over the years, but I knew it was nowhere near what we would face in the political arena. It was an invitation into hardship and resistance. The level of warfare (seen and unseen) was tangible." pg 154


"Anytime I travel, I try to explain clearly that there is another 'California' inside of California that many people do not know about." pg 157


"Yet my advisers and consultants urged me never to 'punch low' and retaliate. That was the old school mob mentality of politics and I truly aspired to run a different kind of campaign. Even though it took everything inside of me not to lash back and defend myself, I remained silent. We kept pressing forward." pg 172


"The most painful resistance was not from the outside or from our own party, but it was from our friends. Many pulled away in silence and distance once I announced that I was running. I was naive to believe we could secure backing from many of our friends." pg 172


"The worst was when they would voice their support in private but then purposefully stay silent in public. There were, however, many surprising relationships along the journey that God brought our way. New face and new friends arrived from very diverse backgrounds who we may have never met if I hadn't chosen to run." pg 174


"I am not sure how a season can be one of the most relationally traumatic and encouraging at the same time. That season fit both of those descriptions." pg 174


"I fully expected God to break in and prove to the skeptics, cynics, and haters of the world that we were actually called to do this. In the process of us being vindicated, only God would get all the glory for the victory." pg 175


"I just felt utter failure, shame, and embarrassment. Not only that, but for the first time in a long time, I questioned my ability to hear God." pg 178


"My biggest battle, however, was with my understanding and faith in the promises of God over my life." pg 180


"One of my favorite Billy Graham quotes sums up our vision for Hold the Line: 'Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened." pg 186

Tuesday, June 08, 2021

God is always good

 

We visited a friend last week who is going through some tragic events. On that same day, I saw a bio on Instagram which read "God is always good." I remembered a story in a book I am reading (Brazen by Sean Feucht, really good by the way) about how the death of his young friend changed his life and how the young girl's father was an example of faith and fortitude at the funeral. It is when tragic moments hit, that people who have practiced small moments of faith and fortitude in everyday decisions and habits can show their true colors. Or rather, God's true colors of love, peace and joy. 

It got me to thinking, am I able to say "God is always good"? In life's most tragic moments, like that father at his young daughter's funeral, or Mary in the Pietá, am I able to say, "God is always good?"

"We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose." Rm 8:28

Omnia in bonum

Article on Catholic Stand

 Article on leadership: 


https://catholicstand.com/every-christian-is-a-leader/

Monday, June 07, 2021

Moby Dick quotes

I liked reading Moby Dick, but it was really incredibly long and I would've never been motivated to finish if it wasn't for my book club. Even so, I skimmed most of it. I read that Moby Dick is like the Mount Everest of literature. 

Spoiler alert, the whale Moby Dick doesn't show up until the last three chapters of the 135 chapters. Until then, the narration of what is happening on the boat is interspersed with long accounts of whale anatomy, history, etc etc etc. But it was really well written. It is one of those books that make you realize how people don't know how to write anymore (including me! haha). 

My first surprise was how many times Azoreans and the Portuguese are mentioned. They really were something in the past! 

My second surprise was the biblical references and symbolism. Like Bishop Barron says, the Bible used to be a part of culture. Even secular culture. It definitely isn't anymore.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:   

"Chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself. Such aportentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity. Then the wild and distant seas where he rolled his island bulk; the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale; these, with all the attending marvels of a thousand Patagonian sights and sounds, helped to sway me to my wish. With other men, perhaps, such things would not have been inducements; but as for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts." Chapter 1, Loomings

"And of all these things the Albino whale was the symbol. Wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?" Chapter 42, The Whiteness of the Whale

"Now, to any one not fully acquainted with the ways of the leviathans, it might seem an absurdly hopeless task thus to seek one solitary creature in the unhooped oceans of this planet. But not so did it seem to Ahab, who knew the sets of all tides and currents..." Chapter 44, The Chart

"...for however peculiar in that respect any chance whale may be, they soon put an end to his peculiarities by killing him, and boiling him down into a peculiarly valuable oil." Chapter 45, The Affidavit

"So ignorant are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some hints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the fishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still worse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory." Chapter 45, The Affidavit

"For God's sake, be economical with your lamps and candles! not a gallon you burn, but at least one drop of man's blood was spilled for it." Chapter 45, The Affidavit

"So there is no earthly way of finding out what the whale really looks like. And the only mode in which you can derive even a tolerable idea of his living contour, is by going a-whaling yourself; but by so doing, you run no small risk of being eternally stove and sunk by him." Chapter 55, Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales

"The natural aptitude of the French for seizing the picturesqueness for things seems to be peculiarly evinced in what paintings and engravings they have of their whaling scenes...." Chapter 56, Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes

"The first boat we read of floated on an ocean, that with Portuguese vengeance had whelmed a whole world without leaving so much as a widow." Chapter 58, Brit