It was a favorite theme of C.S. Lewis that only lazy people work hard. By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values and setting goals, other people do it for us; then we find ourselves frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which is essential to our vocation, to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone.

But if I vainly crowd my day with conspicuous activity or let others fill my day with imperious demands, I don’t have time to do my proper work, the work to which I have been called. How can I lead people into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am in perpetual motion?

Eugene Peterson. THE CONTEMPLATIVE PASTOR: RETURNING TO THE ART OF SPIRITUAL DIRECTION.

The pastor’s question is, “Who are these particular people, and how can I be with them in such a way that they can become what God is making them?” My job is simply to be there, teaching, preaching Scripture as well as I can, and being honest with them, not doing anything to interfere with what the Spirit is shaping in them.

Eugene Peterson. THE CONTEMPLATIVE PASTOR: RETURNING TO THE ART OF SPIRITUAL DIRECTION.

Our gifts are not from God to us, but from God through us to the world….When we try to live without exercising our artistic gifts, we may feel restless and empty. Life lacks fullness. Something buried deep within longs to emerge.

Janice Elsheimer. THE CREATIVE CALL: AN ARTIST'S RESPONSE TO THE WAY OF THE SPIRIT.

For the entire time I have been involved in [wakeboarding] and its afiliated industry I have pushed the concept that traveling the world and riding with people outside of your home lake is one of the most enlightening and rewarding experiences any wakeboarder or wakeskater can have. By traveling you meet people who have the same interests as you, they just grew up on the other side of the planet and deal with different hurdles to get out on the water.

Bill McCaffray. ALLIANCE WAKEBOARD MAGAZINE. May 2006.

The medieval world had no concept of the individual. It was all communal. So when they did memorial services, each person took their flower and stacked it on top of the pile. They had these huge communal mounds of flowers.
The modern world rediscovered the individual and kind of suppressed the community. Everything was 'I.' We had individual vases. We took our individual flowers and put them in individual vases.
So what do postmoderns do? These kids want the communal again, but they can't give up the individual. So they're returning to stacking their flowers, but they want to be individuals at the same time. I'll put my individual bundle on the communal pile.

Leonard Sweet quoted by Rick Lawrence. SECOND CENTURY YOUTH MINISTRY.

leonard sweet :: Second Century Youth Ministry: "There's been a radical shift in learning styles. Most adults learned by trial and error; teenagers learn by trial and success. In other words, we were taught that until we can get it right, don't do it. Until you get all your right beliefs down, until you understand this thing fully, you can't participate in ministry. For these trial-and-success kids, there's no concept of error. They learn by doing. How do you become a disciple of Jesus? You learn by doing.

So the church has got to have a greater toleration for mistakes, falls, failures, misconceptions, and miscues. Young people will learn to be leaders by doing it."

'I am cured of playing the Stoic,' said Vertue, 'and I confess that I go down in fear and sadness. I also--there were many people I would have spoken to. There were many years I would call back. Whatever there is beyond the brook, it cannot be the same. Something is ended. It is a real brook.'

C.S. Lewis. THE PILGRIM'S REGRESS.

Be sure it is not for nothing that the Landlord has knit our hearts so closely to time and place--to one friend rather than another and one shire more than all the land.

C.S. Lewis. THE PILGRIM'S REGRESS.