I Can’t Stop Thinking Big

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“In a world where I feel so small I can’t stop thinking big” (Rush) “What was after the universe? Nothing. But was there anything round the universe to show where it stopped before the nothing place began? It could not be a wall; but there could be a thin thin line there all round everything. It was very big to think about everything and everywhere. Only God could do that. He tried to think what a big thought that must be; but he could only think of God. God was God's name just as his name was Stephen. DIEU was the French for God and that was God's name too; and when anyone prayed to God and said DIEU then God knew at once that it was a French person that was praying. But, though there were different names for God in all the different languages in the world and God understood what all the people who prayed said in their different languages, still God remained always the same God and God's real name was God.” James Joyce, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” (1916)

Anti-Book Review

One downfall to being a bibliophile and active reader is that I like to read what others are reading because I have developed this strange desire to know what shapes thought. Reading becomes quite enjoyable, yet reading can become overwhelming--especially when I encounter a good quote, such as the twoI am about to share. Footnotes, bibliographies and "for futher reading" sections can be are quite destructive to my personal reading list. I don't even know why I have one as it keeps growing and growing and growing . . .

Regardless, here are a couple of thoughts that are going to drive me to pick up yet another book, hence the name of this post "Anti-Book Review." Perhaps the best name should be "Book Anti-review" because I have not read the book yet. I am not anti-books, just the ones that increase my "to read" list. ;-)

Here's the book I've yet to read: "The Divine Conspiracy" by Dallas Willard.

Here are the two quotes driving me to it:

"Jesus knew how to suspend gravity and eliminate unfruitful trees without saw or axe. He only needed a word. Surely he must be amused at what Nobel prizes are awarded for today. He knew how to transform the tissues of the human body from sickness to health and from death to life. In fact, he knew how to enter physical death, actually to die, and then live on beyond death. Forget cryogenics!"

"He also lived with authority. He didn't teach chemistry; he turned water into wine. He didn't teach weather patters; he calmed a storm. He didn't teach medicine; he healed hurting people and instructed his followers to heal in his name. He didn't teach moral philosophy; he forgace and enabled us to forgive. He didn't teach a course on world hunger; he fed the multitudes and commanded his followers to feed them also. Jesus fired on all pistons."

I gotta see what happens next. Would'nt you?

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