But Love is the final reality; and anyone who does not understand this, be he writer or sage, is a man flawed in wisdom.
Sheldon VanaukenReligiously, we longed for the lively life in Christ, but we did not fully see that we were equally longing for the lively life of the mind - the delights of conversation at once serious and gay, which is, whatever its subject, Christ or poetry or history, the ultimately civilized thing.
Sheldon VanaukenThe adult must seem to mislead the child, and the Master the dog. They misread the signs. Their ignorance and their wishes twist everything. You are so sure you know what the promise promised! And the danger is that when what He means by โwindโ appears you will ignore it because it is not what you thought it would beโas He Himself was rejected because He was not like the Messiah the Jews had in mind.
Sheldon VanaukenSigns must be read with caution. The history of Christendom is replete with instances of people who misread the signs.
Sheldon VanaukenIt is not possible to be 'incidentally a Christian.' The fact of Christianity must be overwhelmingly first or nothing. This suggests a reason for the dislike of Christians by nominal or non-Christians: their lives contain no overwhelming first but many balances.
Sheldon VanaukenNot only are we harried by time, we seem unable, despite a thousand generations, even to get used to it. We are always amazed at itโhow fast it goes, how slowly it goes, how much of it is gone. Where, we cry, has the time gone? We arenโt adapted to it, not at home in it. If that is so, it may appear as a proof, or at least a powerful suggestion, that eternity exists and is our home.
Sheldon Vanauken