In the upper left hand of the screen I'm typing on is one of my most favorite words I know in the English language-create. As a child one or another of my kindergarten or elementary teachers sent home a note saying that I didn't color in the lines, my mother's curt reply, "Thank God!"

The church, by and large, has a poor record of encouraging freedom. She has spent so much time inculcating in us the fear of making mistakes that she has made us like ill-taught piano students: we play our songs, but we never really hear them because our main concern is not to make music but to avoid some flub that will get us in dutch.
-Robert Capon

Man has set out at tremendous speed...to go nowhere.
-Jacques Ellul

The domestication of Christianity has been a pet project of the church it seems for many. We nod approvingly at terms like balance, growth, perspective, and maturity. We sanctify the smoothing-out of life, the niceness of Christians, and the aplomb of spiritual professionalism. Henri Nouwen writes of the need for us to realize the tremendous value of being true to ourselves as God made us.

"It is not going to be easy to listen to God's call. Your self-doubt, and your great need for affirmation make you lose trust in your inner voice and run away from yourself. But you know that God speaks to you from your inner voice and that you will find joy and peace only if you follow it."

The Inner Voice of Love.

John