Snag!

Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.

…Our every goal and action should anticipate this God-centered world. Everything we are and do should point to this coming realm and model it before the rest of the world. Christians should build straight houses in the midst of a world where crooked people are building crooked homes. They should run straight businesses, and vote for straight government, in a world where these structures are misshapen by human sin. Their lives should appear to the world as the centers of divine righteousness, peace, and joy. Obviously kingdom-centered living does not come easily.

The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. The Holy Spirit gathers them and does his work in them. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated responsibility in the community. The pastor’s responsibility is to keep the community attentive to God. It is this responsibility that is being abandoned in spades.” {Eugene Peterson}