Its mission: Compassion International exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.
“Love anything, and your heart will certanly be wrung and possiblt broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation.”
I read this quote from C.S. Lewis in Tim Keller’s book The Reason For God. And it freaked me out. It freaked me out because I ‘got it’. I understood exactly what Lewis was trying to say. And in a small way I felt it.
It was a timely reminder to lift the lid on the casket.
Thinking we can fashion all outcomes is the surest way to our own disappointments, writes Hugh Mackay.
Your flight has been cancelled due to circumstances beyond our control … This store will be closed until further notice due to circumstances beyond our control … Unemployment is rising due to circumstances beyond our control …
Question: Which circumstances are not beyond our control? Isn’t it the very nature of circumstances – favourable or unfavourable – to be beyond our control? Aren’t circumstances things that shape us, things we react to, rather than things we create?……
It’s a bit of a pop fav. at the moment and I am intrigued by its arguments and it’s conclusions. So far I’m 45 pages in and still have a long way to go.
The basic premise is that religious faith is bad. Well, it’s not all bad, but the good bits that people get from their religious faith can be gained by other means. Fundamentalist Faith is illogical and dangerous and those who are moderate or ’sit on the fence’ are just as dangerous because they happliy tolerate fundamentalists under the taboo of religion.
What we need to do is stop this ridiculous obsession of ‘accepting’ people of faith as rational, logical people.
It is interesting that whilst the book is a critique of radical Muslims and Christians, it seems to be written from a radical secularist perspective.
Anyway, I have several hundered more pages to read…
If anyone else has read it or wants to add thoughts please do.
agedy, is damnation.”
