Woe to Me

“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.” -Annie Dillard in Teaching a Stone to Talk

“Since when did I begin thinking my contribution to the world was so significant – uncrumbed counters, unlegoed floors -- that I was so necessary, that I couldn't stop, slow, still and commune with Jesus? God's the One who keeps the world in orbit, keeps the river running, not the efforts of any human hands. . . . No one's so important that several times a day, even for a few moments, she can't become small, invisible, in prayer.” Ann Voskamp