The Paradoxical Commandments

photo courtesy of Homer Page (www.time.com)

The Paradoxical Commandments

by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.

Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.

Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

Note:

It's said that Mother Teresa had a "personalized" version of the Paradoxical Commandments written on the wall of her home. Poems can inspire us, and in Mother Teresa's case, she used one as a backbone of a life spent loving God and serving her fellow man. Mother Teresa's version can be found here.

2 Scientists, A Rocket and A Painting (by Peter Kreeft)

photo courtesy of scottbush

When the first moon rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, two U.S. scientists stood watching it, side by side.

One was a believer, the other an unbeliever.

The believer said, "Isn't it wonderful that our rocket is going to hit the moon by chance?"

The unbeliever objected, "What do you mean, chance?

We put millions of manhours of design into that rocket."

"Oh," said the believer, "you don't think chance is a good explanation for the rocket?

Then why do you think it's a good explanation for the universe?

There's much more design in a universe than in a rocket.

We can design a rocket, but we couldn't design a whole universe.

I wonder who can?"

Later that day the two were strolling down a street and passed an antique store.

The atheist admired a picture in the window and asked, "I wonder who painted that picture?"

"No one," joked the believer;
"it just happened by chance."

Quote of the Dei (# 5)

photo courtesy of doublecappuccino

"Oh, I don't reject Christ.

I love Christ.

It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ.

If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today."

- Mahatma Gandhi

Only a Real Risk Tests the Reality of a Belief

photo courtesy of Gallo Quirico

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.

It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box.

But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice.

Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it?

The title and above quote are taken from “A Grief Observed” – a book written by C.S. Lewis that documents the crisis of faith and the grief he experienced after the death of his beloved wife.

Indeed, only during moments of despair do we truly discover the real depth of our faith or lack thereof.

I offer a prayer for anyone who stumbled upon this entry and is undergoing a personal ordeal.

And, if it’s not too much to ask, can you please send one this way as well?

May God grant us the grace to find our ropes strong enough to hold on to during our times of need.

The Argument from Aesthetic Experience

photo courtesy of www.telegraph.co.uk

Since my taste in music is not sophisticated enough to be familiar with Bach, please allow me to share my (dumbed down) version of Kreeft and Tacelli’s “Argument from Aesthetic Experience” (original found here):

On a clear and cloudless night,

I look up to the sky and see the stars,

And know in my heart that there is a God.

You either get it or you don’t.