Quotes From "An Intimate Collision: Encounters With Life And Jesus" By Craig D. Lounsbrough

1
Decisions are the privilege we’ve been granted to have a hand in penning the script of our lives. And in the writing, the question is not the availability of the paper or the pen. The question is the wisdom to use them rightly. Craig D. Lounsbrough
2
I can be absolutely assured that any endeavor of which God is not a part is most certainly a step backward. And any step backward is at least two steps behind where I’d be if I’d have gone forward in the first place. Craig D. Lounsbrough
3
The world brazenly touts freedom as both the inalienable right and morally liberating justification to mindlessly play in the filth that lies all around me. And the slight bit of sanity that yet remains within me asks, ‘what raging madness would prompt me to incessantly wallow in the very things that will eventually swallow me? Craig D. Lounsbrough
4
Is it possible that my walls are specifically erected and intentionally reinforced out of the fear that God calls me to an existence without walls? And if this is so, do I realize that I am the warden of prison that I created in which I myself am the prisoner? Craig D. Lounsbrough
5
My sin murdered Him. And out of this self-loathing shame borne of the understanding that I could perpetrate such a heinous act, I am barely able to raise my head sufficiently to ask what crazed insanity would prompt Jesus to walk out of an empty tomb for the single purpose of pursuing a decaying soul that murdered Him? And I would be wise to consider that the question itself is asked only because I have yet to touch the barest periphery of God’s love despite the fact that because of an empty tomb it stands right in front of me. Craig D. Lounsbrough
6
I am thankful that I can be thankful, for if thankfulness did not exist my heart would be irretrievably imprisoned by the crazed twins of acquisition and possession, and my soul would exist as a forever slave to greed. Craig D. Lounsbrough
7
My soul is utterly frantic for that single place of perfect refuge from which I can clearly see the winds rip and hear the tempest tear, yet despite the ferocity of the tumult I rest in such a sublime peace it is as if neither existed at all. And if I have not yet found such a place, it is because I have not yet found God. Craig D. Lounsbrough
8
An ending is only happening because at some point it was a beginning. And if an ending is dependent upon a beginning, I would be well advised to focus on the miracle of beginnings verses the pain of endings. Craig D. Lounsbrough
9
No, I am not powerful nor do I wish to be, for it is God using my weakness that makes me potent and I would never wish to surrender that. Craig D. Lounsbrough
10
It is not within my power to refuse the journey of life regardless of the nature of my fears or the depth of my selfishness, for the definitions of ‘journey’ and ‘life’ are indistinguishably synonymous. I can however sufficiently inhibit them and amply fight them to the point that I have accepted the journey, but the journey is now solely defined as my effort to forsake the journey. Craig D. Lounsbrough
11
Will I live yearning for a world that I need not yearn for because the message of Christmas is entirely undaunted in its ability to handily penetrate and completely subjugate the very world that I doubt its ability to survive in? Craig D. Lounsbrough
12
Maybe I need to immerse the fabric of my soul in torrential nature of Christmas, and in doing so to finally understand that it is the very thing that can make the world what I so wish it were. Craig D. Lounsbrough
13
Maybe we don’t ever feel that sweetly untainted and wholly majestic kind of love that takes every longing captive because we are hopelessly entangled in the illogical fear that despite all of love’s grand goodness, it might not be good enough to keep us safe. Craig D. Lounsbrough
14
I pray that I am sufficiently stirred by the rumor of great things to seek the God who created this single thread that I am, and to marvel at a vision magnificent enough to cause this God to weave from this single thread a tapestry most resplendent. Craig D. Lounsbrough
15
The art of living is to rise above lesser things so that we can truly enjoy great things. And the message of Christmas is the greatest of all things. Craig D. Lounsbrough
16
Doing life without God is not doing life. Craig D. Lounsbrough
17
If I were to be brutally honest with myself, how often is my journey actually a path designed to circumvent my journey? Craig D. Lounsbrough
18
Whatever I ‘align’’ myself with are the very things that will create a ‘line’ into my future. Craig D. Lounsbrough
19
The present is too often squandered grieving the past or fearing the future, which makes the present nothing more than a cheap facsimile of what was or what will be instead of what it could be. Craig D. Lounsbrough
20
To assist us in climbing the mountains is marvelous. To level the mountains and altogether eliminate the climb is miraculous. And at times I think that God prefers the latter because it emboldens us to face the former. Craig D. Lounsbrough
21
My fear of standing alone often pressures me to stand with a rather unsavory group that embraces a rather unsettling belief system which leaves me wondering why I left the promises of God for the company of people. Craig D. Lounsbrough
22
Why does not the stunning evidence of the last miracle grant me confidence in the next crisis? Because my immaturity does not permit such a faith, my desperate prayer is that God would grant me a robust faith sufficient to trust Him not for one crisis, but for an eternity of miracles. Craig D. Lounsbrough
23
It‘s utterly astounding that every time I get knocked down God’s mercy compassionately raises me to my feet; His grace thoroughly brushes off every trace of assorted filth I accumulated in the fall, His word precisely recalibrates my direction to insure the success of a journey resumed, and once all of that is completed He gently leans over and whispers, “How about another run? Craig D. Lounsbrough
24
The cross unerringly exposes this stunningly marvelous and abruptly exquisite declaration that God will not let this single life of mine, with all of its grotesque maladies and pathetic filth pass into oblivion without unflinchingly declaring that my life carries a value worth the expenditure of His. And if I dare look upon the cross, I am utterly perplexed but wholly enraptured by the immensity of such a love as this. Craig D. Lounsbrough
25
For once in my life maybe I ought to actually think about taking God at His word, and in doing so to suddenly find myself riotously welcoming the rather shocking reality that Christmas is truly everything that He says it is. Craig D. Lounsbrough
26
We must leave Christmas to be what it is, for to reduce it to the stuff of myth and whimsy is take the single and sole hope of a dying humanity and obliterate it. And I would contend that such an action is insanity of the greatest sort. Craig D. Lounsbrough
27
At this moment God might not necessarily be a necessity, but know that His absence will of necessity eventually result in His necessity. Craig D. Lounsbrough
28
To keep my life free of evil I must of necessity keep my life full of God, for keeping my life full of anything else will give evil everything else. Craig D. Lounsbrough
29
The most elusive and ultimately impossible act of liberation is freedom from sin and self, and no document or declaration of man regardless of how exquisitely penned can do that. Such an astonishing act of liberation could only have been penned in one place: the cross. Craig D. Lounsbrough
30
To fully understand how utterly amazing we really are we must first understand all of the things about us that are not, and then we must make our habitation where they are not. Craig D. Lounsbrough
31
I am most thankful for what I don’t have, for had my life’s wish list been filled in the manner I had chosen I would be steeped in meaningless trinkets verses bathed in God’s treasures. Craig D. Lounsbrough
32
My vision of what God can do is nothing more than a fleeting glance of the backside of the ‘possible, ’ while God is inviting me to the forefront of the ‘impossible. Craig D. Lounsbrough
33
The problem with holiness is that once we look into the face of it we are no longer capable of taking that which is odious and filthy and somehow pretending that it’s translucent and clean. In other words, we have to do one of the most revolting things possible; we have to face ourselves. Craig D. Lounsbrough
34
The war on Christmas is waged of weakness and fed by vision blinded. It is a war of intellect blunted to stupidity and calling begging at the feet of cowardice. Craig D. Lounsbrough
35
What is life but God's daring invitation to a remarkable journey? And what is human nature but a staunchly inbred tendency toward self-preservation? And because of the rigidly paradoxical nature of these things, the road of life is seldom trod beyond a few scant steps. Craig D. Lounsbrough
36
Of course I don’t want to get knocked down. But the single and sole solution to that fear is to not go anywhere where I can be knocked down. And is that not already being knocked down? Craig D. Lounsbrough
37
Discouragement is the cancer of great things. Craig D. Lounsbrough
38
And so to tame Christmas we spin myths to temper the story, we create our own caricatures to speak our own lines into the script, we gift ourselves to enhance an adventure now lagging, and we think we’re on a grand adventure when we’ve completely forgotten what an adventure is. Craig D. Lounsbrough
39
Once I finally understand the immensity of my own impoverishment, I am finally in a position to see the enormity of God’s majesty. Craig D. Lounsbrough
40
Yet, there is a sense of some deep sort that runs entirely contrary to human nature; that in putting ourselves first, we must by necessity put others first. Craig D. Lounsbrough
41
Greatness demands that I understand that I am not nearly as big as I thought myself to be, but that I am capable of becoming far bigger than I ever imagined myself to be. Craig D. Lounsbrough
42
Vigilance of the wisest kind is to incessantly remain open to the reality that what I ‘see’ is but a single thread and solitary shard of what ‘is’, for to assume otherwise is to surrender the wisdom of vigilance to the decay of ignorance. Craig D. Lounsbrough
43
A lie is my attempt to tamper with the truth so that I need not face the truth. Yet as shrewd as I think myself to be, I would be wise to understand that God designed truth as ultimately tamper-proof. Craig D. Lounsbrough
44
I would be an utter fool to let my journey be defined by the denial of the journey. Craig D. Lounsbrough
45
If the road behind me is not growing ever longer, then it is likely that the feet underneath me are not moving any longer. And if my feet are not moving, I have somehow, somewhere traded this most glorious journey for lesser endeavors. Craig D. Lounsbrough
46
Thanksgiving is an attitude that must be rooted in the ‘gift of life’ if we ever hope to be thankful for the ‘gifts’ of life. Craig D. Lounsbrough
47
Thanksgiving is not some formulaic action based on a tedious ledger that neatly tallies everything I have received so I can determine if being thankful is warranted or not. Rather, it’s appreciating the fact that I have already received the privilege of living life which in and of itself will fill the whole of my ledger for the whole of my life. Craig D. Lounsbrough
48
Christmas is a bold act of emboldening sacrifice and the most selfless gift ever granted the rebellious lot that we are. Craig D. Lounsbrough
49
If I am so terribly limited as to view my handicaps as nothing more than lamentable limitations, then I have taken some of my greatest God-given assets and completely handicapped them. Craig D. Lounsbrough
50
And who would dare write their own death into the script so that the rest of the characters in the tale might live? God of course. Craig D. Lounsbrough