Quotes Worth Remembering!
Tracks in the Snow
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright once told of an incident that may have seemed insignificant at the time, but had a profound influence on the rest of his life. The winter he was 9, he went walking across a snow-covered field with his reserved, no-nonsense uncle. As the two of them reached the far end of the field, his uncle stopped him. He pointed out his own tracks in the snow, straight and true as an arrow’s flight, and then young Frank’s tracks meandering all over the field. "Notice how your tracks wander aimlessly from the fence to the cattle to the woods and back again," his uncle said. "And see how my tracks aim directly to my goal. There is an important lesson in that."
Years later the world-famous architect liked to tell how this experience had greatly contributed to his philosophy in life. "I determined right then," he’d say with a twinkle in his eye, "not to miss most things in life, as my uncle had."- Focus on the Family letter, September, 1992, p. 14.
Lee IacoccaLee Iacocca was a busy man running the Chrysler Corporation. Even so, he knew the value of taking time off:
"I’m constantly amazed by the number of people who can’t seem to control their own schedules. Over the years, I’ve had many executives come to me and say with pride: ‘Boy, last year I worked so hard that I didn’t take any vacation. ‘ It’s nothing to be proud of. I always feel like responding: ‘You dummy. You mean to tell me that you can take responsibility for an $80 million project and you can’t plan two weeks our of the year to go off with your family and have some fun?"
- Lee Iacocca, An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca & William Novak, Bantam, 1988, quoted in Lifeline, Summer, 1997
Busy-ness Rapes Relationships
"Busyness rapes relationships. It substitutes shallow frenzy for deep friendship. It feeds the ego but starves the inner man. It fills a calendar but fractures a family. It cultivates a program that plows under priorities. Many a church boasts about its active program: ‘Something for every night of the week for everybody.’ What a shame! With good intentions the local assembly can create the very atmosphere it was designed to curb."- Charles Swindoll
Busy-ness"I am so busy. We say this to one another with no small degree of pride, as if our exhaustion were a trophy, our ability to withstand stress a mark of real character. The busier we are, the more important we seem to ourselves and, we imagine, to others. To be unavailable to our friends and family, to be unable to find time for the sunset, to whiz through our obligations without time for a single, mindful breath, this has become the model of a successful life.- Wayne Mueller (quoted in Credneda Agenda, 2000, vol. 12, no. 2, page 3)
What’s Burning?
Imagine a wick that is placed in oil, and then lit. If the oil runs out, the wick burns. As long as there is oil, the wick doesn’t burn. As long as we are living in dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit, we don’t burn out. The question to ask: "What’s burning?"- Source unknown
The Lit Torch
"The Greeks had a race in their Olympic games that was unique. The winner was not the runner who finished first. It was the runner who finished with his torch still lit. I want to run all the way with the flame of my torch still lit for Him."- Fan The Flame, J. Stowell, Moody, 1986, p. 32
No One is IndispensableOf Peter Marshall, former chaplain of the U. S. Senate, "In Peter’s case, I am certain that it was not God’s ideal will that he die of coronary occlusion at forty-six" (Catherine Marshall, in "Something More"). After his first heart attack a friend asked, "I’m curious to know something. What did you learn during your illness?" "Do you really want to know?" Peter answered promptly. "I learned that the Kingdom of God goes on without Peter Marshall."- Quoted in E. Skoglund, Burning out for God
Vince Lombardi"Fatigue makes cowards of us all."
The Need for "Margin""We must have some room to breathe. We need freedom to think and permission to heal. Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity. No one has the time to listen, let alone love. Our children lay wounded on the ground, run over by our high-speed good intentions. Is God proexhaustion? Doesn’t He lead people beside the still waters anymore?" (page 30)
"When we are emotionally resilient, we can confront our problems with a sense of hope and power. When our psychic reserves are depleted, however, we are seriously weakened. Emotional overload saps our strength, paralyzes our resolve, and maximizes our vulnerability." (page 103)
