I am a quote collector. You can't listen to too many of my sermons without hearing me quote someone because usually other people can say things so much better than I can :)
One of my all-time favourites is Oliver Wendell Holmes: "A mind stretched by a new idea never returns to it's original shape." I want my mind to be stretched everyday. I think that is "intellectual stewardship." That's really my goal for each sermon and teaching: to stretch people's minds in new ways.
Ashley Montague said, "I want to die young at a ripe old age." Me too :) Recently I happened into a word: "neoteny." It is retaining childlike qualities into old age. I love that. My family knows that I am really a kid on the inside and I never want to lose that "quality". I also want to keep my right brain alive and llive more out of imagination than out of memory.
C.S. Lewis said, "Every life is comprised of a few themes." That is so true. I think each of us have a unique spiritual DNA. We've got to identify those themes and live by those passions.
Oswald Chambers said, "Let God be as original with others as he was with you." That would keep so many people out of trouble! I think this is a great thought for pastors. We don't need to be who we're not. Each of us is absolutely unique. We lose some of our originality when we settle for conformity! Sometimes our last experience with God is the greatest obstacle to our next experience with God. We get in a rut that doesn't allow God to reveal new things in new ways. I believe spiritual maturity always results in originality. The good past and the bad past is still the past. Today God is up to something new in my life. He is creating a new future!
