Mad Sanity

Spurgeon on election

"It is a good thing God chose me before I was born, because he surely would not have afterwards." 

—Charles Spurgeon

London and Tennent on time stewardship

"The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." 

—Jack London

"I have nothing to do with death; my business is to live as long as I can -- as well as I can -- and to serve my Lord and Master as faithfully as I can, until he shall think proper to call me home."

—William Tennent, Jr.

 

Meyer on self-denial

"Die to the smiles and frowns of man and live for the smile of God. . . . Christianity is not a call to say no to good things, but a call to say yes to greater things."

—Jason Meyer

Rayburn on Providence

"A bullet always tells the truth."

—Paul Rayburn

Faulkner on the past

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

"You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore."

—William Faulkner

Machen on smoking

“My idea of delight is a Princeton room full of fellows smoking. When I think what an aid tobacco is to friendship and Christian patience, I have sometimes regretted that I never began to smoke.” 

—J. Gresham Machen

 

Owen on knowing God

"The difference between believers and unbelievers as to knowledge, is not so much in the matter of their knowledge, as in the manner of knowing. Unbelievers, some of them, may know more, and be able to say more, of God, his perfections and his will than many believers; but they know nothing as they ought, nothing in a right manner, nothing spiritually and savingly, nothing with a holy, heavenly light. The excellency of a believer is not that he hath large apprehension of things; but that what he doth apprehend, which perhaps may be very little, he sees in the light of the Spirit of God, in a saving, soul-transforming light; and this is that which gives us communion with God, and not prying thoughts, or curious raised notions."

—John Owen

Luther on productivity

“I find nothing that promotes work better than angry fervor; for when I wish to compose, write, pray and preach well, I must be angry. It refreshes my entire system, my mind is sharpened, and all unpleasant thoughts and depression fade away.”

—Martin Luther

Books finished in 2012

It was a pretty slow year for reading -- the slowest since 2001. However, none of my choices were wasted, and each title comes highly recommended, especially the final one.

"The joy is on the other side of the hard work. This is basic to all growing up. Part of maturity is the principle of deferred gratification. If you cannot embrace the pain of learning but must have instant gratification, you forfeit the greatest rewards of life." (John Piper, Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God, pg. 47)

"Hosea loved beyond the way

Of mortal man. What man would say,

'Love grows more strong when it must wait,

And deeper when it's almost hate.'" (John Piper, Velvet Steel: The Joy of Being Married to You, pg. 58)

"Your memory is a monster; you forget -- it doesn't. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you , or hides things from you -- and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you!" (John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany, pg. 34)

"Before World War I many premillennialists had stayed aloof from cultural concerns and all were skeptical of any plans concerned merely with the future of civilization. By the end of the war their strongest line of attack on modernism committed them to a position which put forward the survival of civilization as a principal concern. This position accentuated the longstanding paradox in the thinking of American premillennialists. As premillennialists they had to say that there was no hope for culture, but at the same time they were traditional American evangelicals who urged a return to Christian principles as the only cultural hope." (George Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture, pg. 149)

"Christians who struggled with BPD now learned that they were actually battling with the flesh and needed to learn to trust God and begin to walk in the Spirit. Easy? No. Magic? No. Change happened the same way it happens for all Christians -- through spiritual battle: 'the blood, sweat, and tears of dying to self and listening to God.' They 'put off' their 'issue-based identity' (BPD) and 'put on' (Eph. 4:22-24) their 'Christ-identity.' With that identity in place . . . they began to grasp the truth of the gospel; they had died with Christ and were therefore 'no longer . . . slaves of sin' (Rom. 6:6) -- or of BPD!" (Cathy Wiseman, Borderline Personality: A Scriptural Perspective, pg. 6)

"But you can't start. Only a baby can start. You and me -- why, we're all that's been. The anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that's us. This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us. We can't start again. The bitterness we sold to the junk man -- he got it all right, but we have it still." (John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, pg. 119)

"People with BPD often perceive other people as either the wicked witch or fairy godmother, a saint or a demon. When you seem to be meeting their needs, they cast you in the role of superhero. But when they perceive that you've failed them, you become the villain." (Paul Mason, Stop Walking on Eggshells: Taking Your Life Back When Someone You Care About Has Borderline Personality Disorder, pg. 26)

"Turning back, Mr. Nichol could not help exclaiming, 'How can you whistle, when our friends are in so much danger!' 

'Would you have me anxious and troubled?' was the quiet reply. 'That would not help them, and would certainly incapacitate me for my work. I have just to roll the burden on the Lord.'" (Howard Taylor, Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret, pg. 209)

"We buck when we hear these things because we are proud. We say that we do not want God's holiness impugned, but really we do not want our autonomy restricted. If God appoints all the seasons of every man's life, then no man can live unto himself, and no man can find the fount of wisdom within. If God decrees all things, then I cannot escape him, not even by plunging myself into all depravity. A man who embraces evil simply finds himself a tool in the hand of the Almighty. A man who rejects evil and follows wisdom finds himself a son in the family of the Almighty. The one option not offered us is that of thwarting and restricting the purposes of God." (Doug Wilson, Joy at the End of the Tether, pg. 47)

 

Shaw on life

"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."

—George Bernard Shaw

Popeye on duty

"Wrong is wrong even when it helps you."

—Popeye

Okri on creativity

"The fewer the tools, the greater the imagination."

—Ben Okri

Parsons on choices

"Just because a door is seemingly open doesn't mean we should walk through it, and just because a door is seemingly closed doesn't mean we shouldn't knock it down and walk through it."

—Burk Parsons

A history of misery in 21 photos

Can't wait to see what's next!

 

 

White on America

"A nation that perverts sexuality, profanes marriage, and heartlessly murders its own unborn, is not fit to prosper."

—James White

Taylor on impossible

“There are three stages to every great work of God; first it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.” 

—Hudson Taylor

De Gaulle on important people

"Graveyards are full of indispensable people."

—Charles de Gaulle

The Top 10 NFL Uniforms That No Longer Exist

10. New York Jets, 1980s-1990s (I remember when the new was old and the old was new, and I didn't have a huge problem with the Jets going back to their Joe Namath unis, but they just looked faster in these ones.)

9. St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals, 1960s-2000s (This was a classic look that needed no change.)

8. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1970s-1990s (The change was inevitable because the old unis were so closely associated with losing, but they were unique, and they traded that uniqueness for a poor copy of the 49ers look. Their eventual Super Bowl win would have meant more in these.)

7. Seattle Seahawks, 1970s-2000s (The old ones look better and better each time they get a makeover.)

6. Philadelphia Eagles, 1970s-1990s (Like the Jets, they just looked faster in these.)

5. Cincinnati Bengals, 1980s-2000s (These ones gave a player the look of a tough, ferocious tiger rather than the prancing gay tigers that they resemble now.)

4. Denver Broncos, 1970s-1990s (I blame the Denver Broncos for starting the wave of ridiculousness that has overtaken NFL haberdashery back in 1997 when they traded in these classic unis for their current eyesores.)

3. San Diego Chargers, 1960s-1970s (Nobody in their right mind prefers the current Chargers unis to these classics, but they have taken steps in the right direction over the past few years, so hopefully it won't be long before they return.)

2. Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams, 1970s-1990s (The only thing more baffling than the Rams getting rid of these classic unis was the fact that they did it immediately after winning a Super Bowl. You just don't do that.)

1. Minnesota Vikings, 1970s-1990s (What more can we say about the greatest uniforms in the history of sports? I don't think there's a Vikings fan alive who is proud of his team's current look. I would have rather seen my team move to L.A. than change the uniforms. May sanity be restored soon.)

Stark on travel

“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.”

—Freya Stark

 

The 10 Worst Current NFL Uniforms

First, here are the middle 12:

11.Detroit Lions

12.Houston Texans

13.Miami Dolphins

14.New England Patriots

15.San Diego Chargers

16.New York Giants

17.Saint Louis Rams

18.Carolina Panthers

19.Tampa Bay Buccaneers

20.Denver Broncos

21.Tennessee Titans

22.New York Jets

23.New Orleans Saints (These are bad enough already, but when they break out the black pants I have to shut the TV off and turn on the radio.)

24.Arizona Cardinals (Hey, let's take a perfectly good uniform that's been around for decades and make it look like roadkill. Yeah, that'll work.)

25.Baltimore Ravens (Too many colors. Black pants! And don't come into the league in the mid '90s and try to be the second team to pull off purple. There is was only one team that can could do that.)

26.Seattle Seahawks (We've already discussed this, but as bad as they are, they still may be an improvement on the 2002-2011 unis. Nevertheless, there was no reason to abandon the originals.)

27.Cincinnati Bengals (I loved the simplicity of the jerseys juxtaposed with the striking tiger-striped helmet when they finally abandoned the Cleveland Browns replicas in 1981, but when they tried to jazz up the jerseys it was too much. Know when to say when.)

28.Jacksonville Jaguars (As if the teal wasn't bad enough, now they've decided to add a couple of stripes down the side for no reason. They may move up a couple of notches though now that they've switched to black as their primary jersey color.)

29.Cleveland Browns (I like simplicity, but this is ridiculous. And are they the Browns or the Oranges? Get a nickname and a logo already.)

30.Minnesota Vikings (Neither the Herschel Walker trade, nor threatening to move to L.A., nor blowing two winnable NFC championship games has tested my loyalty to my team like the insane choice to change the uniforms in 2006. But they still tease me once or twice a year by wearing the sweetest looking throwback uniforms of all time. I can only hope that they will come to their senses soon so I can watch my team again without cringing.)

31.Atlanta Falcons (I never really liked the Falcons uniforms in the 80s and 90s, but what they've done to them lately actually makes the old ones look good. It seems like they sampled the worst features from all the current uniform designs and put them in a blender and a Falcons jersey popped out.)

32.Green Bay Packers (If you're going to go with spinach and lemon as your primary colors you'd better come up with a really nice design to pull it off. The big G on a yellow helmet obviously ain't it. I would suggest trying the Falcons' strategy and throwing it in a blender.)

Coming up next: the top ten NFL uniforms that no longer exist....

Ferguson on free will

"No one can will the will to will what it will not will." 

—Sinclair Ferguson

The Top 10 Current NFL Uniforms

1.Oakland Raiders (If I had just arrived from some far away land and was not bound by geographical loyalties and had to pick a team based purely on the uniforms, the Raiders would be my team. Same result if I had to pick a team based on the theme song.)

2.Buffalo Bills (The Bills were very close to taking the top spot here. I loved the old unis of the 60's and 70's and adored the 80's-90's look as well. Even when they were getting slaughtered in four straight Super Bowls they at least looked cool in the process. The overhaul in '02 was a huge disappointment and I rejoiced when they went to a more classic look last year. Whoever designed this uniform should have a Ninja Turtle named after him.)

3.Washington Redskins (Enjoy them while you can. If the Washington NBA team can move up from gun violence to witchcraft, who knows what direction the NFL team will go. But you can bet the uniforms won't be as sweet as these.)

4.Kansas City Chiefs (See number 3 and number 7.)

5.San Francisco 49ers (Another team that wised up after trying to improve on perfection. Many other teams in the league need to follow their example.)

6.Pittsburgh Steelers (The uniforms alone win them two or three games a year.)

7.Indianapolis Colts ("Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." -Da Vinci)

8.Chicago Bears (It pains me to say it, since I so vigorously root against them twice a year, but you can't wear a Bears uniform without looking tough.)

9.Philadelphia Eagles (It's a step down from the sweet threads that Randall Cunningham and Reggie White wore, but they're still pretty sharp.)

10.Dallas Cowboys (This would be higher on the list if they would wear their home uniforms at home, but unfortunately we only get to see them once or twice a year.)

Coming up next: the bottom 10....

 

Stetzer on nones

"Christianity in America isn't dying, cultural Christianity is. I am glad to see it go."

—Ed Stetzer

Wilson on courtship

"When a guy singles out a young woman in some romantic fashion, this means that one of two things is happening. Either he is trying to get her into bed dishonorably, or he is attempting to get her into bed honorably" 

—Doug Wilson

Babe on living in the present

"Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games."

—Babe Ruth

Tonto on anonymity

"There come a time, Kimosabe, when good man must wear mask."

—Tonto

Welch on mental illness

"All of us are brain-damaged. With some it's more obvious than others."

—Ed Welch

Teddy on sanity

"Which would be worse? To live as a monster, or die as a good man?"

—Andrew Laeddis

Calvin on watching your mouth

"I consider looseness of words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels."

—John Calvin

Campbell on contentment

"The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure."

—Joseph Campbell