Another collection of bite-sized pieces of interest, wisdom and/or just sheer beautiful prose, from various places.
Dig in!
When his [legendary composer John Williams’s] longtime collaborator, the movie director Steven Spielberg, showed him Schindler’s List, the composer felt it would be too challenging to score. He said to Spielberg, ‘You need a better composer than I am for this film.’ Spielberg responded, ‘I know. But they’re all dead!’
– TV documentary on composer John Williams
[In response to a YouTube movie saying that ‘God is going to send great blessing soon!’] You don’t look all that happy that there’s a great blessing coming….. so hey let me share something with you: Today is the day of salvation! (2Cor 6:2) Today is the day that God has given you in which to enjoy all the fullness and blessing that He pours out on you every day; His mercies are new every morning! Why wait until tomorrow which, yes, will also be blessings, but not live for today’s blessings? Tomorrow will look after itself (Matt 6:34)!
– Me,
[Hannah Arendt, in her book The Origins of Totalitarianism] explained why totalitarians […] promote the incompetent: Totalitarianism in power invariably replaced all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty. Arendt also explained, in advance, the [totalitarian in question]’s extraordinary hostility to research, the extraordinary speed with which it is destroying [his country]’s scientific base: The consistent persecution of every higher form of intellectual activity by the new mass leaders springs from more than their natural resentment against everything they cannot understand. Total domination does not allow for free initiative in any field of life.
– Paul Krugman
Imagination is a deadly weapon; it pays to keep it sharp.
– Anon
It seemed he was there to teach, but not to learn…
– Me
Can we get it wrong if we follow the Spirit? Of course. And you don’t have to look very hard to see a few thousand years of people getting it wrong by following the Book, either.
– Keith Giles
…as everyone knows, appeasement only works until the bully decides it doesn’t
– Me
When some people talk about the gospel, you’d think that John 3:16 said: “God so hated the world that he killed his only Son.” Sometimes people say: “That picture is important—wrath and sin and hell and all the rest of it, and it’s because God loves us.” But simply adding the word “love” onto the end of that story can actually be even worse. It is like what abusers do when they say, “I love you so much”—it’s hideous.
– N.T. (‘Tom’) Wright
Tragically, they are often unaware of their own ignorance, with no one to correct them. While spreading misconceptions about fictional characters like Superman, Captain Spock, or Frodo Baggins is one thing, disseminating false ideas about God and doing so in His name carries far greater consequences. The fact some of these ideas are being preached from pulpits backed by a suit and tie, a bible college certificate, and theatrical lighting and amplification only further ratify and facilitate the spread of false doctrines. At the same time, it may explain why there are roughly 45,000 different Christian groups and denominations worldwide today.
– Eitan Bar, The “Gospel” of Divine Abuse: Redeeming the Gospel from Gruesome Popular Preaching of an Abusive and Violent God pp. 69-70. SHAMUS. Kindle Edition.
Regrettably, we live in a time where worship songs and social media exert greater influence on Christian theology and faith culture than the Bible itself.
– Eitan Bar ibid, 97
That which cannot be earned by moral perfection, cannot be unearned by moral imperfection
– Dr. Michael Heiser
They fly wild, and they fly like a stroke of luck incarnate
– Katherine Rundell, ‘A Carnival of Animals: The Swift’, BBC Radio 4, 8th October, 2025.