#remember this
F - Star Wars: Visions - The Village Bride
You’re amazing. I know this for a fact. You may not have been looking for this post, but here it is, making sure you know that you matter, at least to me. Days get tough, but you are amazing. You always have been and always will be. Have a nice day you wonderful, wonderful person.
To love Jesus means to keep His commandments. [Such keeping] is not a matter of mere obedience but of loving imitation. [Try as one might, it is impossible to honestly obey anyone unless one also loves them; neither pride nor indifference can even feign the virtues of humility and dedication required to observe another’s commands. On the other hand,] if I love a person, I want to keep that person’s commandments, both out of loyalty and out of respect for that person’s qualities: [for as one who loves will easily discern,] the commandments [given] will reveal and mirror that person’s qualities. So, the Law given by Moses reveals God’s nature by what He commands. Just so, the actions of Jesus reveal His and the Father’s nature: He heals, He loves, He judges, He forgives, He commands. To obey the commands [given by our loving God] is a response in love, [not legalism. To keep them, like a gift, is the natural and necessary consequence of our personal relationship to Him]: we need to do just that.
Dom Henry Wansbrough; Commentary on John 14:15
Trusting in God (in Hebrew, bittachon - בִּטָּחוֹן) does not mean that we are obligated to affirm that this is “the best of all possible worlds,” though it does mean we believe that eventually God will wipe away every tear and make all things right. Bittachon is a word for this world, which says, “Though He slay me, I will trust in Him…” Those who call upon the LORD can trust not only in concealed good behind ambiguous appearances (“all things work together for good”), but also in a future, real, substantive good that will one day be clearly manifest for us all. We fight the “good fight” of faith, which is a worthy struggle that eventually is realized for blessing. Meanwhile, may the LORD our God keep us from such depth of sorrow that leads to sickness, darkness and despair.
John J. Parsons
Every time that we sin, we are born of the devil. But every time that we do good, we are born of God.
Saint John Chrysostom
sappho, trans. anne carson // letters to gilbert bradley, gordan bowsher // borrowed time, paul monette // from now on we are enemies, fall out boy // the great geysers of california, laura de force gordon // little beast, richard siken // the song of achilles, madeline miller // samson, regina spektor // selected letters of e. m. forster, e. m. forster // break my heart, joy harjo
(visitor’s book in the Lesbian Herstory Archives of New York)