“Sometimes we are tempted to be that kind of Christian who keeps the Lord’s wounds at arm’s length. Yet Jesus wants us to touch human misery, to touch the suffering flesh of others. He hopes that we will stop looking for those personal or communal niches which shelter us from the maelstrom of human misfortune and instead enter into the reality of other people’s lives and know the power of tenderness. Whenever we do so, our lives become wonderfully complicated and we experience intensely what it is to be a people, to be part of a people.” PeopleKnowsWantHumansKindSometimesRealityChristianSufferingJesusLordOur LivesArmsMiseryComplicatedFleshWoundsLengthMisfortunesTendernessShelterTemptedWant UNicheMaelstrom Book:The Joy of the Gospel Source: The Joy of the Gospel
“Many of our miseries are merely comparative: we are often made unhappy, not by the presence of any real evil, but by the absence of some fictitious good; of something which is not required by any real want of nature, which has not in itself any power of gratification, and which neither reason nor fancy would have prompted us to wish, did we not see it in the possession of others.” WantMadeRealReasonEvilWishMiseryPossessionAbsenceUnhappyFancyConsumerismGratificationOverconsumption Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius