“
She's your once in a lifetime girl.
”
”
Dennis McKay (A Boy From Bethesda)
“
Sometimes I'm sad about everything; the way my grilled cheese sandwich tastes, how nice my socks feel, a song John is playing in the kitchen. One time he puts on this goofy Loudon Wainwright song that was on a mix tape I used to listen to during my commute from the boys' school in Bethesda back into the District when we were newly married and everything was about to begin and it makes me burst into tears about the shortness of everything.
”
”
Nina Riggs (The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying)
“
The fountain of Bethesda will flow again. And I told him I would personally take him there to bathe. We will all bathe ourselves clean.
”
”
Tony Kushner (Perestroika (Angels in America, #2))
“
Like the bronze statue of the Angel of the Waters, those who pursue perfection find themselves paralysed by the possibility of flaw, fault or failure.
”
”
Jamie Le Fay (Beginnings (Ahe'ey, #1))
“
Later, toward the end of my presidency, The New York Times would run an article about my visits to the military hospitals. In it, a national security official from a previous administration opined that the practice, no matter how well intentioned, was not something a commander in chief should do - that visits with the wounded inevitably clouded a president’s capacity to make clear-eyed, strategic decisions. I was tempted to call that man and explain that I was never more clear-eyed than on the flights back from Walter Reed and Bethesda. Clear about the true costs of war, and who bore those costs. Clear about war’s folly, the sorry tales we humans collectively store in our heads and pass on from generation to generation - abstractions that fan hate and justify cruelty and force even the righteous among us to participate in carnage. Clear that by virtue of my office, I could not avoid responsibility for lives lost or shattered, even if I somehow justified my decisions by what I perceived to be some larger good.
”
”
Barack Obama (A Promised Land)
“
My mother says it can't stay like this, but I believe it will. The Pants are like an omen. They stand for the promise we made to one another, that no matter what happens, we stick together. But they stand for a challenge too. It's not enough to stay in Bethesda, Maryland, and hunker down in air-conditioned houses. We promise one another that someday we'd get out in the world and figure some stuff out.
”
”
Ann Brashares (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Sisterhood, #1))
“
She believed in magic—the magic of places, the magic of people, the magic of coincidences, serendipity, and fortune. She enjoyed wandering through the world with the open mind and curiosity of a four-year-old child. In her world the mystical, mythical, and magical inhabited the same space and time as the ordinary and the practical. At Bethesda Terrace, she always felt close to a source of magic and creativity. It was as if she was tapping into the place where dragons, angels, gods, sorceresses, and demons came to life.
”
”
Jamie Le Fay (Beginnings (Ahe'ey, #1))
“
Thornton Wilder’s one-act play “The Angel That Troubled the Waters,” based on John 5:1-4, dramatizes the power of the pool of Bethesda to heal whenever an angel stirred its waters. A physician comes periodically to the pool hoping to be the first in line and longing to be healed of his melancholy. The angel finally appears but blocks the physician just as he is ready to step into the water. The angel tells the physician to draw back, for this moment is not for him. The physician pleads for help in a broken voice, but the angel insists that healing is not intended for him. The dialogue continues—and then comes the prophetic word from the angel: “Without your wounds where would your power be? It is your melancholy that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men and women. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In Love’s service, only wounded soldiers can serve. Physician, draw back.” Later, the man who enters the pool first and is healed rejoices in his good fortune and turning to the physician says: “Please come with me. It is only an hour to my home. My son is lost in dark thoughts. I do not understand him and only you have ever lifted his mood. Only an hour.… There is also my daughter: since her child died, she sits in the shadow. She will not listen to us but she will listen to you.”13 Christians who remain in hiding continue to live the lie. We deny the reality of our sin. In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift. If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others. We cling to our bad feelings and beat ourselves with the past when what we should do is let go. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, guilt is an idol. But when we dare to live as forgiven men and women, we join the wounded healers and draw closer to Jesus.
”
”
Brennan Manning (Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging with Bonus Content)
“
When I think about the patriotism that drives SEALs, I am reminded of Ryan recovering in a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. There he was, freshly wounded, almost fatally, and blind for life. Many reconstructive surgeries to his face loomed ahead. You know what he asked for? He asked for someone to wheel him to a flag and give him some time. He sat in his wheelchair for close to a half-hour saluting as the American flag whipped in the wind.
”
”
Chris Kyle (American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History)
“
So together, Reader and Vincent used HeLa cells as the springboard to launch the first industrial-scale, for-profit cell distribution center. It started with what Reader lovingly referred to as his Cell Factory. In Bethesda, Maryland, in the middle of a wide-open warehouse that was once a Fritos factory, he built a glass-enclosed, room that housed a rotating conveyor belt with hundreds of test-tube holders built into it. Outside the glass room, he had a setup much like the Tuskegee's, with massive vats of culture medium, only bigger. When cells were ready for shipping, he'd sound a loud bell and all the workers in the building, including mailroom clerks, would stop what they were doing, scrub themselves at the sterilization station, grab a cap and gown, and line up at the conveyor belt. Some filled tubes, others inserted rubber stoppers, sealed tubes, or stacked them inside a walk-in incubator where they stayed until being packaged for shipping.
”
”
Rebecca Skloot (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks)
“
To trust him is the sure way to every blessing, and he is worthy of the most implicit confidence; but unbelief makes them prefer the cold porches of Bethesda to the warm bosom of his love.
”
”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Morning and Evening)
“
Bethesda … Would I be wrong in guessing you work for Uncle Sam?"
"Why, yes. You must be very familiar with Washington, Mr. Fenton. Does your work bring you there often?"
Anywhere but on our sandbar the little ploy would have worked. My hunter's gene twitches.
"Which agency are you with?"
She gives up gracefully. "Oh, just GSA records. I'm a librarian."
Of course. I know her now, all the Mrs. Parsonses in records divisions, accounting sections, research branches, personnel and administration offices. Tell Mrs. Parsons we need a recap on the external service contracts for fiscal '73.
- 'The Women Men Don't See
”
”
James Tiptree Jr.
“
he wanted to be back in Bethesda questioning Pultz. Why had he killed Caroline Tuscini? Why had he paused after dropping to the other side of the fence when he could have gotten away? What had he been about to say?
”
”
Charlie Adhara (The Wolf at the Door (Big Bad Wolf, #1))
“
Listen. There is a light that includes our darkness. A day that shines down even on the clouds.
A man of faith believes that the man in the well is not lost. He does not believe this easily, or without pain, but he believes it.
His belief is a kind of knowledge beyond any way of knowing. He believes that the child in the womb is not lost, nor is the man whose work has come to nothing, nor is the old woman forsaken in a nursing home in California.
He believes that those who make their bed in hell are not lost, or those who dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, or the lame man at Bethesda pool, or Lazarus in the grave, or those who pray "Eli, Eli, lema sabacthani". Lord have mercy.
”
”
Wendell Berry (Jayber Crow)
“
Income from the Maryland province had already helped finance the school that would become Saint Louis University in Missouri and established the Washington Seminary, which later became Gonzaga College High School, in the nation's capital. It also supported Georgetown Preparatory School, a private Catholic high school now located in North Bethesda, Maryland, which was once part of Georgetown College. ...
Meanwhile, Jesuits based west of the Mississippi River, who also relied on slave labor, ran colleges in Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana, and Ohio.
”
”
Rachel L. Swarns (The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church)
“
The fact that Cooper Dayton was running down the side streets of Bethesda and not driving back to D.C. by now was proof that his father had been dead wrong. His haircut was plenty professional. Too professional, even. How else could Ben Pultz have made him as a federal agent from thirty feet away and taken off running? Not from his jeans and T-shirt. Not from the weapons carefully hidden under his intentionally oversized jacket. It had to be the bureau-regulation hair. Apparently Pultz didn’t think he looked like a “boy band reject,” though Cooper doubted his dad, Sherriff Dayton, would be swayed by the opinion of a fleeing homicide suspect.
”
”
Charlie Adhara (The Wolf at the Door (Big Bad Wolf, #1))
“
When I think about the patriotism that drives SEALs, I am reminded of Ryan recovering in a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. There he was, freshly wounded, almost fatally, and blind for life. Many reconstructive surgeries to his face loomed ahead. You know what he asked for? He asked for someone to wheel him to a flag and give him some time. He sat in his wheelchair for close to a half-hour saluting as the American flag whipped in the wind. That’s Ryan: a true patriot. A genuine warrior, with a heart of gold. Of course we all gave him shit and told him somebody probably wheeled him in front of a Dumpster and just told him it was a flag. Being Ryan, he dished out as many blind jokes as he took and had us all rolling every time we talked.
”
”
Chris Kyle (American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History)
“
Elizabeth, do you remember Jerusalem? The pools of Bethesda, the porch and the water where the lame and halt used to wait for the angel to stir the water for them? There was a beggar there. His body was broken and feeble. He was so weak and lame, he was unable to walk, unable even to stand. Do you remember him, Elizabeth? Do you know who I mean?” “Yes, I remember. He was one of the crippled. And my Brother healed him.” “Do you remember how long he waited?” “I don’t remember specifically, but it was a long time.” “Thirty-eight years, Elizabeth. Almost his entire life. Thirty-eight years he suffered alone, waiting patiently. Yet whenever the angel came, he never could reach the water in time, for he was too weak and feeble to be the first to the pool. Can you imagine his discouragement?! Can you imagine how he felt? Thirty-eight years he suffered, waiting for a miracle. He felt so sick and abandoned, so completely alone, for there was no man to carry him and no one who cared. “And sometime in your mortal life, you will feel like this man. You will feel sick and abandoned, unable to deal with the challenges of the world. You will want to be healed, but there will be no one there. And when you feel that way, Elizabeth, I want you to remember this man. Remember that Christ healed him when no one would carry him to the pool. When he felt most alone, after patiently waiting so long, the Savior came out of nowhere and made him whole. There will be times you feel you have been abandoned, but that is never so. Your Brother will heal you. Our Father will always look after you.
”
”
Chris Stewart (Great and Terrible: The Complete Series)
“
For inspiration, I would turn again and again to Lieutenant Jason “Jay” Redman, a Navy SEAL who had been shot seven times and had undergone nearly two dozen surgeries. He had placed a hand-drawn sign on the door to his room at Bethesda Naval Hospital. It read: ATTENTION. To all who enter here. If you are coming into this room with sorrow or to feel sorry for my wounds, go elsewhere. The wounds I received I got in a job I love, doing it for people I love, supporting the freedom of a country I deeply love. I am incredibly tough and will make a full recovery. What is full? That is the absolute utmost physically my body has the ability to recover. Then I will push that about 20% further through sheer mental tenacity. This room you are about to enter is a room of fun, optimism, and intense rapid regrowth. If you are not prepared for that, go elsewhere. From: The Management.
”
”
Robert M. Gates (Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War)
“
At Bethesda Naval Medical Center, Biggles was still in a medically induced coma. Just two days had passed since he suffered a traumatic brain injury and extensive damage to his eyes and face. When I walked into his room for the first time, I didn’t know what to expect. I guess I was a little shocked by what I saw. Biggles’s eyes were swollen up to the size of purple golf balls on a patchwork of pink, black, and blue skin. It didn’t feel right. As we stood around his bed in our civvies, Biggles had no idea we were there. The whole scene made us uneasy. He had tubes protruding from his mouth and one from his head to relieve the pressure. He wasn’t the same Biggles I saw on patrol headed down Baseline—now placid with unconsciousness and badly wounded. None of us could say much of anything until I finally muttered, “Be strong, Biggles. We’ll be back to see you soon, brother.
”
”
Kevin Lacz (The Last Punisher: A SEAL Team THREE Sniper's True Account of the Battle of Ramadi)
“
Bethesda Appliance Repair in Bethesda, MD is a professional appliance repair service with several years of experience assisting homeowners. Our technicians can repair refrigerators, freezers, stoves, clothes dryers, washers & more! Your appointment includes a 12-month warranty on parts and labor and a 100% satisfaction guarantee! Schedule now!
”
”
Bethesda Appliance Repair
“
Rumors have dogged the course of the Anford presidency, his infrequent appearances and moments of public confusion leading to rumors that he is suffering from a brain tumor or degenerative muscular disorder. The White House claims this latest round of tests is merely part of a routine medical checkup, and doctors at Bethesda Naval Hospital are, as usual, silent on the state of the president’s health. . . .
”
”
Tad Williams (Mountain of Black Glass (Otherland, #3))
“
family. The doctors at Bethesda were aware, from radio and television reports, that the dying President had been taken to a place called Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. No Navy doctor thought of phoning Parkland to ask what procedures had been tried, what wounds had been treated, to ask to what surgical abuses the body had been submitted. Nor did it occur to Parkland, when the news was broadcast that the remains were headed for Bethesda, to phone with a summary report of Texas procedures.
”
”
Jim Bishop (The Day Kennedy Was Shot)
“
Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." John 5:8 Like many others, the impotent man had been waiting for a wonder to be wrought, and a sign to be given. Wearily did he watch the pool, but no angel came, or came not for him; yet, thinking it to be his only chance, he waited still, and knew not that there was One near him whose word could heal him in a moment. Many are in the same plight: they are waiting for some singular emotion, remarkable impression, or celestial vision; they wait in vain and watch for nought. Even supposing that, in a few cases, remarkable signs are seen, yet these are rare, and no man has a right to look for them in his own case; no man especially who feels his impotency to avail himself of the moving of the water even if it came. It is a very sad reflection that tens of thousands are now waiting in the use of means, and ordinances, and vows, and resolutions, and have so waited time out of mind, in vain, utterly in vain. Meanwhile these poor souls forget the present Saviour, who bids them look unto him and be saved. He could heal them at once, but they prefer to wait for an angel and a wonder. To trust him is the sure way to every blessing, and he is worthy of the most implicit confidence; but unbelief makes them prefer the cold porches of Bethesda to the warm bosom of his love. O that the Lord may turn his eye upon the multitudes who are in this case tonight; may he forgive the slights which they put upon his divine power, and call them by that sweet constraining voice, to rise from the bed of despair, and in the energy of faith take up their bed and walk. O Lord, hear our prayer for all such at this calm hour of sunset, and ere the day breaketh may they look and live. Courteous reader, is there anything in this portion for you?
”
”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Christian Classics: Six books by Charles Spurgeon in a single collection, with active table of contents)
“
DR. Raymond Markey, Assistant Secretary for Health of the Department of Health and Human Services, stared out the window at the lush green compound in Bethesda, Maryland.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Miracle Cure)
“
IN Bethesda, Maryland, four powerful men sat in a plush office in a picturesque baronial structure on the campus of the National Institutes of Health. One was powerful in the religious world; one in the political realm; two in the medical community. It was a beautiful day. The sky was dark blue and clear. The well-manicured grounds outside were alive with green. The whole area resembled the most exclusive of country clubs. But the four men were oblivious to their resort like surroundings. Arguments raged. Accusations were hurled. Fingers were pointed. And in the end nothing was resolved. Through it all, one man had not raised his voice. One man had not engaged in the bitter debate. One man—a normally very verbose man—had not said a word. But the man had listened. And the man had made a decision. As
”
”
Harlan Coben (Miracle Cure)
“
The house we were renting that spring belonged to Sara Mankiewicz, Herman Mankiewicz’s widow, who was traveling for six months, and although she had packed away the china she did not want used along with Herman Mankiewicz’s Academy Award for Citizen Kane (you’ll have friends over, she had said, they’ll get drunk, they’ll want to play with it) she had left out her Minton dinner plates, the same pattern as the Minton tiles that line the arcade south of Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, for me to use.
”
”
Anonymous
“
2 Bethesda, Maryland Jerry Irwin sat in his dark office, the only light the glow of his computer monitor. He tapped out a quick message: Demo completed successfully, as we are sure you’ve heard. Second display to occur on Friday. Interested parties to submit confidential bids by midnight Friday. Irwin read it over twice to make sure it struck the right tone: succinct and confident, but not brash or boastful. Satisfied, he ran the concealment program and sent it out to a select list. He powered off the computer and rose from his ergonomic desk chair, whistling tunelessly. It wouldn’t be
”
”
Melissa F. Miller (Irreparable Harm (Sasha McCandless, #1))
“
A few days earlier, during our time in Jerusalem, my friend George and I stumbled upon the Pool of Bethesda, which the Gospel of John names as the place where Jesus healed a paralyzed man.12 John describes it as a pool with “five porticoes.” For centuries, some scholars doubted that the pool ever existed. But archaeological excavations in the nineteenth century uncovered almost the entire complex—including the five porticoes, just as John had described. Seeing not only the site at which Jesus had performed a miracle, but also one confirmation of the Gospels’ accuracy was deeply moving. There were the five porticoes: one, two, three, four, five. There they were. And here he had been.
”
”
James Martin (Jesus: A Pilgrimage)
“
BETHESDA, Maryland -From her perch as head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Nora Volkow watches anxiously as the country embarks on what she sees as a risky social experiment in legalizing marijuana. For those who argue that marijuana is no more dangerous than tobacco and alcohol, Volkow has two main answers: We don't entirely know , and, simultaneously, that is precisely the point.
”
”
Anonymous
“
He could not have explained to James how bizarre it was to see Anne Macaulay attach herself to a woman who might have been constructed like a mannequin to demonstrate every wicked thing Bethesda considered worldly.
”
”
Sarah Perry (Enlightenment)
“
Likewise, Egypts vaunted economic reform--the mythology embroidered by the IMF and Washington--had also unraveled by the beginning of the new millennium. During 2000. the Cairo stock market collapsed, losing almost 50 percent of its value. By the end of the year share prices were lower than when the government first revived the exchange in 1995. The real estate boom had gone bust. Ahmed Bahgat , the builder of dreamland, suffered a heart attack in July 2000 while on a trip to Washington, where he was part of an official delegation making an unsuccessful effort to encourage investments from large U.S corporations. When news reached Cairo that he was in a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland,undergoing surgery to the aorta, shares in his company collapsed. Dreamland was effectively bankrupt. Beverly Hills and most of the other smaller developments also came to a halt, as speculators discovered they had overbuilt and luxury property prices dropped by more than half----Dreamworlds of neoliberalism Evil Paradises
”
”
Timothy Mitchell
“
Do you want to get . . . sober? Solvent? Educated? Better? Do you want to get in shape? Over your past? Beyond your upbringing? Do you want to get stronger, healthier, happier? Would you like to leave Bethesda in the rearview mirror? Are you ready for a new day, a new way? Are you ready to get unstuck?
”
”
Max Lucado (You Are Never Alone: Trust in the Miracle of God's Presence and Power)
“
Later, toward the end of my presidency, The New York Times would run an article about my visits to the military hospitals. In it, a national security official from a previous administration opined that the practice, no matter how well intentioned, was not something a commander in chief should do—that visits with the wounded inevitably clouded a president’s capacity to make clear-eyed, strategic decisions. I was tempted to call that man and explain that I was never more clear-eyed than on the flights back from Walter Reed and Bethesda. Clear about the true costs of war, and who bore those costs. Clear about war’s folly, the sorry tales we humans collectively store in our heads and pass on from generation to generation—abstractions that fan hate and justify cruelty and force even the righteous among us to participate in carnage. Clear that by virtue of my office, I could not avoid responsibility for lives lost or shattered, even if I somehow justified my decisions by what I perceived to be some larger good.
”
”
Barack Obama (A Promised Land)
“
His single greatest skill was lying about how great his other skills were. In practice, Alexander was well meaning but inept, careless and prone to knocking himself unconscious. “Do you trust the principal?” I asked. “He was just informed that I was to be activated.” “How do you know that?” Cyrus asked suspiciously. I thought about telling the whole story, but then decided to go with the answer Erica always gave me instead. “I’m training to be a spy. It’s my job to know things. Does the principal know what’s going on?” “The principal wouldn’t know what was going on even if he was here with us right now,” Cyrus said. “Yes, I told him SPYDER was active so he’d authorize your mission without any delay, but I lied to him about everything else. He thinks you’re infiltrating a prep school in Bethesda.
”
”
Stuart Gibbs (Spy School Secret Service)
“
Kensi Gounden writing the biography of famous American lawyer Thurgood Marshall, originally Thorough good Marshall, (born July 2, 1908, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.—died January 24, 1993, Bethesda), lawyer, civil rights activist, and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court’s first African American member. As an attorney, he successfully argued before the Court the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which declared unconstitutional racial segregation in American public schools.
”
”
kensigounden, kenseelengounden
“
Then, in a bookstore of a Bethesda (Maryland) mall, I chanced upon the unlikely shelving of a striking title: One Dimensional Man (1964). It entranced me. Herbert Marcuse argued that both capitalist and communist societies were totalitarian. Barely touching on the Eastern bloc, however, he directed his scathing critique almost exclusively at the West and the U.S. in particular. The “technological rationality” of “administered life” in “advanced industrial society” infiltrates existence and effectively mass-produces and controls everything. In meeting needs and even in providing affluence for some, it eradicates individuality. The system determines needs and then satisfies them, making for a “willing” conformity with its own demands. The administered society is “totalizing” – nothing, not even criticism of it, escapes its reach. I thought of my hero, Bob Dylan; he refused the role of political spokesman, writing sometimes bizarre, surrealistic, reflective, and lovelorn songs instead. But by Marcuse’s reckoning, even, or especially, the caustic criticism of his early folk career had been commodified and coopted. My
”
”
Michael Rectenwald (Springtime for Snowflakes: Social Justice and Its Postmodern Parentage)
“
Later, toward the end of my presidency, The New York Times would run an article about my visits to the military hospitals. In it, a national security official from a previous administration opined that the practice, no matter how well intentioned, was not something a commander in chief should do—that visits with the wounded inevitably clouded a president’s capacity to make clear-eyed, strategic decisions. I was tempted to call that man and explain that I was never more clear-eyed than on the flights back from Walter Reed and Bethesda. Clear about the true costs of war, and who bore those costs. Clear about war’s folly, the sorry tales we humans collectively store in our heads and pass on from generation to generation—abstractions that fan hate and justify cruelty and force even the righteous among us to participate in carnage. Clear that by virtue of my office, I could not avoid responsibility for lives lost or shattered, even if I somehow justified my decisions by what I perceived to be some larger good. Looking through the helicopter window at the tidy green landscape below, I thought about Lincoln during the Civil War, his habit of wandering through makeshift infirmaries not so far from where we were flying, talking softly to soldiers who lay on flimsy cots, bereft of antiseptics to stanch infections or drugs to manage pain, the stench of gangrene everywhere, the clattering and wheezing of impending death. I wondered how Lincoln had managed it, what prayers he said afterward. He must have known it was a necessary penance. A penance I, too, had to pay.
”
”
Barack Obama (A Promised Land)
“
But she stopped at the third picture, a gorgeous baking tray of golden buttery-topped tiropetes, with a bowl on the side of bright-colored Greek salad with what appeared to be fresh oregano.
It had popped up because she was following #bethesdafood scene.
The caption, written by BoozyCrocker, said:
BoozyCrocker MUST EAT BUTTER. #TheCookbookClub is now open to new members. Foodies, come join us! Three-drink minimum. No skipping dessert. Meet in Bethesda. DM me. No psychos, no diets. #foodporn #saycheese #cheese #feta #musteatbutter #delicious #whenindoubtaddbutter #bethesdafoodscene
”
”
Beth Harbison (The Cookbook Club: A Novel of Food and Friendship)
“
More than a decade ago, when my office was in the suburbs of Bethesda, Maryland, I used to enjoy feeding the squirrels in the yard through which my patients walked to reach the waiting room. The little critters—certainly nothing to be afraid of—grew increasingly tame, until some were taking the peanuts from my outstretched hand. I left a can of raw peanuts in my office waiting room to remind me to give them a few handouts each day.
One day, I was sitting with one of my patients in the office when we heard a startling clatter coming from the waiting room. I got up somewhat fearfully to investigate. The door from outdoors into the waiting area was ajar and the can of peanuts knocked to the floor. Encouraged and empowered by my generous freebies, squirrels had invaded the inner sanctum of my office.
That invasion seemed humorous and harmless enough until a few days later, when I heard one of my patients shriek as she came through the pathway to the office. A squirrel had climbed up her pants leg, seeking a peanut handout.
I stopped feeding the squirrels.
Obeying negative legacy emotions is like feeding wild critters. They will take over and grow in power until we have unmanageable beasts trying to overwhelm us from inside our heads. We need to stop feeding the squirrels in our heads. We can start by refusing to listen or respond to them.
”
”
Peter R. Breggin (Guilt, Shame, and Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming Negative Emotions)
“
No more Bethesda for you. No more waking up and going to sleep in the same mess. God dismantled the neutral gear from your transmission. He is the God of forward motion, the God of tomorrow. He is ready to write a new chapter in your biography.
”
”
Max Lucado (God Will Help You: Finding Comfort and Encouragement in God's Promises)
“
He that was healed wist not who it was." John 5:13 Years are short to the happy and healthy; but thirty-eight years of disease must have dragged a very weary length along the life of the poor impotent man. When Jesus, therefore, healed him by a word, while he lay at the pool of Bethesda, he was delightfully sensible of a change. Even so the sinner who has for weeks and months been paralysed with despair, and has wearily sighed for salvation, is very conscious of the change when the Lord Jesus speaks the word of power, and gives joy and peace in believing. The evil removed is too great to be removed without our discerning it; the life imparted is too remarkable to be possessed and remain inoperative; and the change wrought is too marvellous not to be perceived.
”
”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Christian Classics: Six books by Charles Spurgeon in a single collection, with active table of contents)