1
We look around us and we find ourselves confused as to why the world has fallen into such deep darkness. And standing in this descending darkness, what we need to realize is that the farther we move from God, the darker everything gets. And no light of man can illuminate that kind of darkness.Craig D. Lounsbrough
2
We ask, ‘Why the need for God?’ Maybe the better question is ‘Why the need not to need Him?’ And could it be that that question in fact evidences our need for Him?Craig D. Lounsbrough
3
You are not made in ‘your image’. You are, in fact, made in ‘God’s image’. Therefore, which one are you looking for when you look in the mirror?Craig D. Lounsbrough
4
If I’ve prayed, I never have to worry about being the first one to show up.Craig D. Lounsbrough
5
Tragedy descends, and in the carnage our enraged cynicism screams ‘If there was a God, He would not have allowed this! ’ And somehow we’ve conveniently forgotten that once upon a time He allowed us to tell Him to go away, and once upon that time we allowed ourselves to take Him up on that offer.Craig D. Lounsbrough
6
God’s absence in the carnage is due to one single rather unnerving fact; that at some time past He honored our request that He leave. And if we are not brutally honest with ourselves regarding that choice, it is we ourselves who have set the stage for the next tragedy.Craig D. Lounsbrough
7
The world is shaken by major events, but it is ‘transformed’ by slight subtleties. And while we may be far too small to create even one major event, we are just the right size to craft a thousand subtleties.Craig D. Lounsbrough
8
At the moment that everything goes dark, the sunset in front of us becomes the whole story. But if we find courage enough to wait until tomorrow morning, we will suddenly come to understand that in reality yesterday’s sunset was only half of the story.Craig D. Lounsbrough
9
In the end, if we don't have God we don't have anything other than an end.Craig D. Lounsbrough
10
Tomorrow’ is the thing that’s always coming but never arrives. ‘Today’ is the thing that’s already here and never leaves. And because that’s the case, I would much prefer to invest in today than sit around waiting for an arrival that’s not arriving.Craig D. Lounsbrough
11
The darkness that follows a sunset is never so dark that it can change the inevitability of a sunrise.Craig D. Lounsbrough
12
Ethics are the things that say, 'Don’t stick your finger in the socket.' The world says, 'It’s okay because we’ve shut off the electricity.' And at the point that we’ve chosen to listen to the world and ignore our ethics, we say, 'I’m having a really hard time getting back up.Craig D. Lounsbrough
13
Faith is rare because fear is rampant. For faith will demand that I step into places that fear itself fears to go.Craig D. Lounsbrough
14
Forgiveness allows the burdens that we carry to become the histories that we forget.Craig D. Lounsbrough
15
To be careless in making decisions is to naively believe that a single decision impacts nothing more than that single decision, for a single decision can spawn a thousand others that were entirely unnecessary or it can bring peace to a thousand places we never knew existed.Craig D. Lounsbrough
16
When we choose to stay down, we are in reality confusing wisdom with cowardice. When we choose to stand back up, we are using wisdom to overcome cowardice.Craig D. Lounsbrough
17
I can arrogantly brag that the doors I choose in life open wide and grant me unobstructed passage. But the widest doors tend to lead to the worst places.Craig D. Lounsbrough
18
Imagination envisions what could be. Reality states what is. And when my journey is shaped by one of these at the exclusion of the other, I will eventually wake up on some road facing the ‘reality’ that I’m far more lost than I could have ‘imagined’.Craig D. Lounsbrough
19
A compass calibrated by my greed is a rather shrewd way to legitimize my agenda. However, true north on a compass such as this is a straight line to the edge of a really big cliff.Craig D. Lounsbrough
20
It’s not that I’ve been invited to the hole I’m standing in. It’s that I accepted the invitation.Craig D. Lounsbrough