Sublime

Here is the exact center of the fields of heaven. Here is the source.

To live in our Father’s story, remember these three things: Don’t demand that the story go your way. (In other words, surrender completely.) Look for the Storyteller. Look for his hand, and then pray in light of what you are seeing. (In other words, develop an eye for Jesus.) Stay in the story. Don’t shut down when it goes the wrong way.

Fred was at a loss for how exactly he would serve God and others through his career.

Here O’Connor recognizes what Augustine saw clearly in his own prayer journal, the Confessions—that living well depended on the reordering of our loves. To love our success more than God and our neighbor hardens the heart, making us less able to feel and to sense.

When God calls a man, he calls him to come lose himself, and so it is no wonder that the most eager of those called tend to already know what it is like to lose. The Beatitudes help us see the upside-down ethos of the kingdom of God. To preach the good news of his kingdom and build legacies of faith, Jesus is looking primarily for losers.

Frederick Buechner said, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

God was a Being to know and be known by, a Being as real as any of the creatures of his own creation, and a Being altogether good, sheltering them while also looking them in the eye and listening—the protection of a father and the intimacy of a friend.

If all we needed was the right information about God, he would have dropped an instruction manual down from the heavens. But he came as a person because the offer isn’t information; it’s life.

Now think about it: everyone’s life is shaped by what he worships, by the rules that she obeys, and by the life calling that he gives himself to. True, living, biblical faith causes you to submit all three of these shaping influences to God. He becomes the object of the worship of your heart. His rules define the moral boundaries of your life. And