Jonathan Simcoe
@jdsimcoe
Jonathan Simcoe
Getting pissed off is easy; asking God to bless your enemies can only be prayed through gritted, obedient teeth. Jesus knew this about the human heart's capacity to love so well. He said in Matthew 5:43-48:
... See more"If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people,
Beautiful articulation of Enemy Love being the thing that helps us reflect the Father’s identity; forming our identity as His children.
Good taste is reverence for that which towers before you, silent and steady. We cannot quite shake the truth that things possess real quality, and to recognize it is not hubris but humility, a submission to what stands before us. Elaine Scarry calls this posture “radical decentering,” a step outside into otherness. In these surreal moments, we... See more
Caroline Liberatore • Ditch Your Taste in Books
Yet, despite this wingspan, these aesthetics rarely crystallize into real-life practices; to don them does not require any reckoning with their true substance. St. Augustine aptly asserts in Soliloquies, Book I, that “What is not loved for itself is not loved.” We may have a Renaissance painting set as our desktop background and a growing... See more
Ditch Your Taste in Books
"My soul begs me for any kind of creative outlet... but the moment I feel the urge to do anything creative, there’s something that just won’t let me. Probably the thought that I should be focusing my time and energy on painting instead of any other thing that would also make me happy... So, I guess my question is, how does one start to honor
... See moreSo what is stopping me from stepping outside my habitual crap?
My mind, my limited mind.
The story of life is the story of the same basic mind readdressing the same problems in the same already discredited ways.
Maria Popova • George Saunders on How to Live an Unregretting Life
You know that feeling at the end of the day, when the anxiety of that-which-I-must-do falls away… That moment when you think, Oh God, what have I done with this day? And what am I doing with my life? And how must I change to avoid catastrophic end-of-life regrets?
[…]
At the end of my life, I know I won’t be wishing I’d held more back, been less
... See more