“It seems The Adversary needs neither their guilt nor their request, but simply their return. In other words, since repentance is the process whereby guilt is turned into gratitude, He doesn’t mind if they skip a step and go directly to gratitude.” ReligionChristianityGratitudeGuiltRepentanceChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“That dusty hill we can scarcely look upon and then only with pain, The Adversary, also with pain, does and must ever witness The Crucifixion.” PainReligionChristianityWitnessChristian FictionCrucifixionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“Make them imagine repentance more like an appearance in court before a cranky old judge, less like a child knocking on his father’s study door to have a chat.” ReligionChristianityRepentanceChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“They view repentance as the thing they have to do in order to earn forgiveness, therefore the more difficult they make it, the more credit they tally up.” ReligionChristianityRepentanceChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“Remember, this type doesn’t really believe He’ll forgive them, by repenting they are trying to earn what they do not think, in any case, He will pay.” GodReligionChristianityRepentanceForgiveChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“Their guilt plus their repentance should have equalled forgiveness. But they don’t feel forgiven, so they failed, which makes them feel guilty, which was why they repented in the first place, so they’re stuck right where they started: Guilty.” GodReligionChristianityGuiltGuiltyRepentanceForgivenChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“And recently, we installed another word in its place which, to their minds, has a wholly positive connotation. We say ‘Gluttony’. They say ‘Consumerism’.” ReligionChristianityConsumerismChristian FictionGluttonyGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“Consumerism, the new black. I want my burger my way. Shaken not stirred. Sauce on the side and rare but not rare rare. Venti, two-pump, sugar-free vanilla, non-fat, two Splenda, extra-hot, extra-whip, extra-mocha Mocha and can you put the Splenda in before you pour the milk? (See, this is where it gets positively delicious!) Under the auspices of that wonderful word Consumerism, not only is this not seen as overly demanding, it’s positively encouraged by everyone.” ReligionChristianityConsumerismChristian FictionStarbucksGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“The more we train a man to labor, deliberate, dictate and demand over the inconsequential, the less capable his mind becomes of holding that of consequence.” MindReligionChristianityChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“We have deficited upon their attention in the most disorderly fashion.” ReligionChristianityChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“I shouldn’t need to remind you that it was words that created the universe and The Word that now holds it together. While your man was simply reading one little book, something not unlike Genesis was stirring in his skull, and you didn’t think to stop it?” BookReligionReadingChristianityChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“Joy is that paradox where a man so trusts, is so enraptured, as to be caught up and lost in the other, while at the same time, being utterly known by the other, thus utterly himself.” JoyReligionChristianityParadoxChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“In Joy, to lose one’s life is to gain it, and Joy never loses an opportunity to be lost in the other.” JoyReligionChristianityChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“That sense of entitlement is precisely where we want them because the right to happiness is directly opposed to one of The Adversary’s greatest curatives —gratitude.” HappinessReligionChristianityGratitudeEntitlementChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“But here I’d like to add to what the Tempter’s Manual suggests. Depression, at its finest, is not a Future that they cannot hopefully construct, nor a shamed Past that hounds them, but an agonizing Present that they cannot escape. We want to disable their Present so that they cannot use it to look Heavenward.” ReligionChristianityDepressionChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“And I’m glad to see that all three clients are male. Not that the females can’t be corrupted, I’ve just always found the males more amenable to temptation. The males have always had all the power, so that does much to explain it. As they say: Easy pickings.” ReligionChristianityFemaleTemptationChristian FictionMaleGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“First of all, don’t ever let them try to define that word “happiness” for themselves. They can’t and that’s precisely what we never want them to realize. Keep it a vague bright mist hovering about their heads. Locate it securely at the end of implausible rainbows. Hide it snugly in some corner of their thoughts they rarely visit.” HappinessReligionChristianityChristian FictionGrimrackRainbows Author:Geoffrey Wood
“Never let them try out this gratitude, for they would immediately discover that it supplies the first and most important component to happiness: Contentment.” HappinessReligionChristianityGratitudeContentmentChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“Life, liberty and the pursuit of gratitude, now that would’ve worked. They would have been readily led to contentment, which would’ve then better lead them on to happiness.” LifeHappinessReligionLibertyChristianityGratitudePursuitContentmentChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happy hour, the long weekend, the all-inclusive island resort, the sunny beach vacation. Happiness is somewhere else, someplace with boat drinks, some secret, distant state of bliss which if they were given would bore them in minutes.” LifeHappinessReligionLibertyChristianityPursuitChristian FictionGrimrackHappy HourBoat Drinks Author:Geoffrey Wood
“Teach them the shame that tells the lie, “I am unforgivable,” when the truth is, “I feel unforgivable, but it was out of my control.” Never let them switch those round right or The Adversary will liberate them in a heartbeat, like a bird flying from a cage.” TruthReligionChristianityBirdShameHeartbeatChristian FictionCageGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“Somehow they fail to see that for someone aggravated by depression, self-help will be useless, indeed, it is precisely the self that needs to be forgotten.” SelfReligionChristianitySelf HelpDepressionChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“I say “illusion” of choice because, in many cases, the nature of their choices hardly reaches the level of will, but of merely perfunctory activity. For the most part, their desires are not too strong, they are too weak, apathetic and easily placated. They often can be tempted into doing Nothing.” ReligionStrongChristianityIllusionWeakChoiceWillTemptedNothingChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“But as I say, if you look to the state of their souls you’ll find the situation nowhere near as grave as polls suggest. There’s more to being a servant of The Adversary than signing up.” ReligionChristianityServantSoulsChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“They really do occupy a scrumptious little dark corner of my heart!” HeartReligionChristianityChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“No earthly act escapes its eternal echoes, echoes more substantial than the acts themselves.” ReligionChristianityEternalEchoesChristian FictionGrimrackEarthly Author:Geoffrey Wood
“A tiny adjustment, but a tasty one. Poof! And somewhere in the back of their minds the godlike thought glimmers.” GodReligionChristianityChristian FictionMindsGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“They think that if they were allowed to do anything they desired, they would be satisfied and the more desires the better. But all desires divorced from The Desire eventually collapse in on themselves.” DesireReligionChristianityChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“If we blind them to The Adversary —decrease their desire for The Desire— while at the same time encourage them to do anything else they desire with increasing “freedom of choice,” then eventually we snuff out desire while leaving demand in tact.” DesireReligionChristianityDemandChristian FictionFreedom Of ChoiceGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“Finally, slowly, drippingly, degrade the term Choice down to its most meager means: The red car not the black one. The 9:25 showing, not the 7:15. Ritz not Wheat Thins.” ReligionChristianityChoiceChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“Also, always encourage 'being good' over 'doing good.' Acts of goodness are the difficulty for us and should, of course, be avoided. 'Being good' is far less problematic, largely because it lacks definition and can be solely a state of mind completely unattached to reality.” ReligionChristianityGoodState Of MindChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“This is why we apply the LCD Principle or Lowest Common Democracy. In short, this is social interaction based not on the best possible good, but on the least possible offense. Without saying so, the parties involved have entered into the following arrangement: What is the least we can all agree on and still get along? Of course, you can see this means no one is pleased.” ReligionChristianityDemocracyChristian FictionAmericanGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
“We’ve spent centuries moving them away from that word virtue and especially The Virtues and that’s precisely how we did it —by making it lower case.” ReligionChristianityVirtueChristian FictionGrimrack Author:Geoffrey Wood
