Where are Men
When they're Not at Home?

Different places.
Some are out at the barn checking on the mare that's about to foal.
I know, not many now.
A few.

Some are running down to the corner store to pick up something they forgot.
Be right back.

Some are in offices practicing pitches. Spiels.

Some are phoning from offices—saying they'll be late.

Of course, many are dead.
You suddenly think about them because you're back where you haven't been
in 20 years
and go to look them up.
But they're not there.
Just some widows.

But most are way off somewhere searching for fathers who were never home enough.

"Where are Men When they're Not at Home?" by Reid Bush, from What You Know. © Larkspur Press, discovered on Bob Nickles' blog, The Back Burner.

Perhaps argument and teaching, too, cannot reach all men, but the soul of the listener, like the earth which is to nourish the seed, should first be cultivated by habit to enjoy or hate things properly; for he who lives according to passion would neither listen to an argument which dissuades him nor understand it, and if he is disposed in this manner, how can he be persuaded to change?

~Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Apostle

I would not be anywhere else but in this hardest of fields with an invincible Christ... I am full of hope that when God delays in fulfilling our little thoughts, it is to leave Himself room to work out His great ones. And, more and more as times goes on, I feel that the longer He waits the more we can expect, for the deeper and wider will be the undermining, and the greater will be the band of those who will come forth free from their prison walls. When one gets hold of that vision, one can throw back in the devil's face his taunts over the seemingly wasted years that lie behind us.
~Lillias Trotter
(a gem discovered at MargaretAshwood.com)

"What I like about experience is that it is such an honest thing. You may take any number of wrong turnings; but keep your eyes open and you will not be allowed to go very far before the warning signs appear. You may have deceived yourself, but experience is not trying to deceive you. The universe rings true wherever you fairly test it."

~C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

"What is grace? It is the inspiration from on high: it is love; it is liberty. Grace is the spirit of law. This discovery of the spirit of law belongs to St. Paul; and what he calls 'grace' from a heavenly point of view, we from and earthly point, call 'righteousness.'"
~Victor Hugo, (1802-1885)
French Novelist

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
~C. S. Lewis

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2).

A blank page. Spells potential. Inspiring. Intimidating. Kind of like the future. Frightening. I’ve felt that way about my future. Sometimes, still do. It’s good to know Someone else is writing the story of my life.

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved."

~Helen Keller

“When we come to the edge of the light we know, and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, of this we can be sure…either God will provide something solid to stand on or…we will be taught to fly.”

~Author unknown

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickinson

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year~
"Give me a light that I might tread safely into the unknown."
And he replied,
"Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way."

~M.L. Haskins (Quoted by His Majesty the King in an empire broadcast.)

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good. That means even in these periods of confusion and trials of faith. God is good! I don't have direction, but I have Him beside me; that is better than thinking I know where to go on my own.

Not only do I have the hand of God when the world is dark, I have His Word, a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. The five foolish virgins had lamps but no light because their oil ran out. If I have His Word, but not His Spirit, my lamp will not light my way. If I have His Spirit but neglect His Word, there is no context for the oil of His Spirit to flow. Do I have His Word and does His Spirit flow through my life? Then that Word can enlighten my path. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105).

When God Says Wait
"The word spoken to me has been to be ready to go, but also to wait on God’s timing."
by Gabe Reese (90&9.com)