| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: astray from the Word of God, and to blind it, that you cannot feel your
distress or come to Christ. A murderer, who cannot bear to see you live
one single hour. If you could see how many knives, darts, and arrows
are every moment aimed at you, you would be glad to come to the
Sacrament as often as possible. But there is no reason why we walk so
securely and heedlessly, except that we neither think nor believe that
we are in the flesh, and in this wicked world or in the kingdom of the
devil.
Therefore, try this and practice it well, and do but examine yourself,
or look about you a little, and only keep to the Scriptures. If even
then you still feel nothing, you have so much the more misery to lament
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: And, Gorgon-like, turns active men to stone.
We not require the dull society
Of your necessitated temperance,
Or that unnatural stupidity
That knows nor joy nor sorrow; nor your forc'd
Falsely exalted passive fortitude
Above the active. This low abject brood,
That fix their seats in mediocrity,
Become your servile minds; but we advance
Such virtues only as admit excess,
Brave, bounteous acts, regal magnificence,
Walden |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: It was their coming in that small immature shape that puzzled us;
we were not used to it. There are some girls now. Abel is a good boy,
but if Cain had stayed a bear it would have improved him. After all
these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning;
it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it
without her. At first I thought she talked too much; but now I should
be sorry to have that voice fall silent and pass out of my life.
Blessed be the chestnut that brought us near together and taught me
to know the goodness of her heart and the sweetness of her spirit!
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EVE'S DIARY
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