β
The Paradoxical Commandments
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
β
β
Kent M. Keith (The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council)
β
I never understood why Clark Kent was so hell bent on keeping Lois Lane in the dark.
β
β
Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife)
β
So are you going to be my knight in shining armor or what?'
Kent does a little bow. 'You know I can't resist a damsel in distress.
β
β
Lauren Oliver (Before I Fall)
β
It's a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
To know what a person has done, and to know who a person is, are very different things.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
i think of all the thousands of billions of steps and missteps and chances and coincidences that have brought me here. Brought you here, and it feels like the biggest miracle in the world.
β
β
Lauren Oliver (Before I Fall)
β
Please," he says. "I'm begging you to stop."
I still.
"I can't stomach your pain," he says. "I can feel it so strongly and it's making me crazy- please," he says to me. "Don't be sad. Or hurt. Or guilty. You've done nothing wrong."
"I'm sorry-"
"Don't be sorry, either," he says. "God, the only reason I'm not going to kill Kent for this is because I know it would only upset you more.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Ignite Me (Shatter Me, #3))
β
The dead are never far from us. They're in our hearts and on our minds and in the end all that separates us from them is a single breath, one final puff of air.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (Ordinary Grace)
β
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
β
β
Kent M. Keith
β
We are synonyms but not the same.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Unravel Me (Shatter Me, #2))
β
Never apologize for burning too brightly or collapsing into yourself every night. That is how galaxies are made.
β
β
Tyler Kent White
β
You see," she concluded miserably, "when I can call like that to him across space--I belong to him. He doesn't love me--he never will--but I belong to him.
β
β
L.M. Montgomery (Emily's Quest (Emily, #3))
β
Twice.
Once for Adam.
Once for Warner.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Ignite Me (Shatter Me, #3))
β
I can turn to that day as though it were a page in a book. Itβs written so deeply upon my mind I can almost taste the ink.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
You have to believe in yourself despite the evidence.
β
β
Kent Haruf
β
Bill: Superman didn't become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red "S", that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears - the glasses, the business suit - that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent. He's weak... he's unsure of himself... he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race.
β
β
Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill)
β
Itβs not fair. People claim to know you through the things youβve done, and not by sitting down and listening to you speak for yourself.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
The miracle is this: that you will rise in the morning and be able to see again the startling beauty of the day.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (Ordinary Grace)
β
Kent?" I say, and my voice seems to have to rise from inside the fog, taking forever to get from my brain to my mouth.
"Yeah?"
"Promise you'll stay here with me?" I say.
"I promise," he whispers.
β
β
Lauren Oliver (Before I Fall)
β
You're not the ugly one. Levi Grinned. You're just the Clark Kent...
... Will you warn me when you take off your glasses?
β
β
Rainbow Rowell (Fangirl)
β
Even if you hate yourself, Iβll love you for the both of us.
β
β
Rina Kent (God of Fury (Legacy of Gods, #5))
β
Don't belittle yourself. Be BIG yourself.
β
β
Corita Kent
β
Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
I used to ask for an easy life, now I ask to be strong.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (Iron Lake (Cork O'Connor, #1))
β
Let your life reflect the faith you have in God. Fear nothing and pray about everything. Be strong, trust God's word, and trust the process.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
If youβre a mistake, Iβll still make it every fucking time.
β
β
Rina Kent (Cruel King (Royal Elite, #0))
β
I was worst to the one I loved best.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
Any woman knows that a thread, once woven, is fixed in place; the only way to smooth a mistake is to let it all unravel.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
How to win in life:
1 work hard
2 complain less
3 listen more
4 try, learn, grow
5 don't let people tell you it cant be done
6 make no excuses
β
β
Germany Kent
β
I'm not a great programmer; I'm just a good programmer with great habits.
β
β
Kent Beck
β
..you wanted to be the Superman who was never Clark Kent
β
β
Leonard Cohen (Beautiful Losers)
β
I want to help you,' I say to Juliet, though I know that I can't make her understand, not like this.
'Don't you get it?' She turns to me, and to my surprise I see she's crying. 'I can't be fixed, do you understand?'
I think of standing on the stairs with Kent and saying exactly the same thing. I think of his beautiful light green eyes, and the way he said, You don't need to be fixed and the warmth of his hands and the softness of his lips. I think of Juliet's mask and how maybe we all feel patched and stitched together and not quite right.
I am not afraid.
Dimly, I have the sense of roaring in my ears and voices so close and faces, white and frightened, emerging from the darkness, but I can't stop staring at Juliet as she's crying, still so beautiful.
'It's too late,' she says.
And I say, 'It's never too late.
β
β
Lauren Oliver (Before I Fall)
β
Of all that we're asked to give others in this life, the most difficult to offer may be forgiveness.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (This Tender Land)
β
What is your name?" asked Lear.
Caius," said Kent.
And whence do you hail?"
From Bonking, sire."
Well, yes, lad, as do we all," said Lear, "but from what town?
β
β
Christopher Moore (Fool)
β
Be mine and you become the queen on my board.β He pauses and flicks his tongue to lick my lower lip. βFight and youβll remain a pawn.
β
β
Rina Kent (Deviant King (Royal Elite, #1))
β
Being enemies doesnβt change the fact that youβre fucking mine.
β
β
Rina Kent (Steel Princess (Royal Elite, #2))
β
BlΓndur er bΓ³klaus maβur. Blind is a man without a book.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
Consider everything an experiment.
β
β
Corita Kent
β
Live your life in such a way that you'll be remembered for your kindness, compassion, fairness, character, benevolence, and a force for good who had much respect for life, in general.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
To say nothing is saying something. You must denounce things you are against or one might believe that you support things you really do not.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
6 Ways To Give Your Mind A Break:
1. Stop stressing
2. Stop worrying
3. Give rest to the problems weighing you down
4. Lighten up
5. Forgive yourself
6. Forgive others
β
β
Germany Kent
β
I promise if you keep searching for everything beautiful in this world, you will eventually become it.
β
β
Tyler Kent White
β
If you are on social media, and you are not learning, not laughing, not being inspired or not networking, then you are using it wrong.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
Who does ever get what they want? It doesnβt seem to happen to many of us if any at all. Itβs always two people bumping against each other blindly, acting out old ideas and dreams and mistaken understandings.
β
β
Kent Haruf (Our Souls at Night)
β
I don't want to be remembered, I want to be here!
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
They see Iβve got a head on my shoulders, and believe a thinking woman cannot be trusted.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
Convince yourself everyday that you are worthy of a good life. Let go of stress, breathe. Stay positive, all is well.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
Gratitude is one of the most powerful human emotions. Once expressed, it changes attitude, brightens outlook, and broadens our perspective.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
The treachery of a friend is worse than that of a foe.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
Remember when you told me to tell you something in Russian?β βYou said I was cute.β βNo. I said βI canβt live without you,β and we take that quite literally in Russia.
β
β
Rina Kent (God of Fury (Legacy of Gods, #5))
β
He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain, which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful graces of God.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (Ordinary Grace)
β
Your strength doesn't come from winning. It comes from struggles and hardship. Everything that you go through prepares you for the next level.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
I never wanted a prince. I prefer an unhinged motherfucker.β βHey! Thatβs me!
β
β
Rina Kent (God of Fury (Legacy of Gods, #5))
β
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
β
β
Kent M. Keith
β
Don't live the same day over and over again and call that a life. Life is about evolving mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
When God is ready for you to move, He will make your situation uncomfortable.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
Thereβs freedom in chaos.
β
β
Rina Kent (Ruthless Empire (Royal Elite, #6))
β
One day youβll dream of me as I dream of you.
β
β
Rina Kent (Steel Princess (Royal Elite, #2))
β
Kindness is universal. Sometimes being kind allows others to see the goodness in humanity through you. Always be kinder than necessary.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
Those who donβt play chess think the king is the strongest piece because the game ends when he dies, but they donβt stop to think that if the queen dies first, the king doesnβt have a chance to survive.
β
β
Rina Kent (Cruel King (Royal Elite, #0))
β
It is a huge danger to pretend that awful things do not happen. But you need enough hope to keep going. I am trying to make hope. Flowers grow out of darkness.
β
β
Corita Kent
β
The universe doesn't matter, green, you do.
Then. Now. Always.
β
β
Rina Kent (Black Knight (Royal Elite, #4))
β
Life is not what you have or what you can keep. It is what you can bear to lose.
β
β
Kathleen Kent (The Heretic's Daughter)
β
I don't remember my dreams,' I tell the boy with grey eyes.
He pinches my cheek. 'I'll dream for the both of us.'
'Promise?'
'Promise, Elsa
β
β
Rina Kent (Twisted Kingdom (Royal Elite, #3))
β
I cannot think of what it was not to love him. To look at him and realise I had found what I had not known I was hungering for. A hunger so deep, so capable of driving me into the night, that it terrified me.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
When an old person dies,β Kent said, βeven if that person is wonderful, he or she is still somewhat ready, and so are the people who loved them. Theyβre like old trees, whose roots have loosened in the ground. They fall gently. But when someone like your aunt Sylvie diesβbefore her timeβher roots get pulled out and the ground is ripped up. Everyone nearby is in danger of being knocked over.
β
β
Ann Napolitano (Hello Beautiful)
β
Weβre conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware β beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.
β
β
Kent Nerburn (Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace)
β
Advice to my younger self:
1 Start where you are with what you have
2 Try not to hurt other people
3 Take more chances
4 If you fail, keep trying
β
β
Germany Kent
β
My Elsa. Sheβs mine. Fucking mine. And no one will change that. Not even her.
β
β
Rina Kent (Steel Princess (Royal Elite, #2))
β
She invented her own language to say what everyone else could only feel.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
You always wanted the nice guy; too bad you got the fucking villain.
β
β
Rina Kent (God of Malice (Legacy of Gods, #1))
β
They will see the whore, the madwoman, the murderess, the female dripping blood into the grass and laughing with her mouth choked with dirt. They will say βAgnesβ and see the spider, the witch caught in the webbing of her own fateful weaving. They might see the lamb circled by ravens, bleating for a lost mother. But they will not see me. I will not be there.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
Loss, once itβs become a certainty, is like a rock you hold in your hand. It has weight and dimension and texture. Itβs solid and can be assessed and dealt with. You can use it to beat yourself or you can throw it away.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (Ordinary Grace)
β
If you do not have control over your mouth, you will not have control over your future.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
To the ones who scream in silence
β
β
Rina Kent (God of Fury (Legacy of Gods, #5))
β
And what is happiness, Nathan? In my experience, it's only a moment's pause here and there on what is otherwise a long and difficult road. No one can be happy all the time.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (Ordinary Grace)
β
Our former selves are never dead. We speak to them, arguing against decisions we know will bring only unhappiness, offering consolation and hope, even though they cannot hear.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (This Tender Land)
β
Anyone moderately familiar with the rigours of composition will not need to be told the story in detail; how he wrote and it seemed good; read and it seemed vile; corrected and tore up; cut out; put in; was in ecstasy; in despair; had his good nights and bad mornings; snatched at ideas and lost them; saw his book plain before him and it vanished; acted people's parts as he ate; mouthed them as he walked; now cried; now laughed; vacillated between this style and that; now preferred the heroic and pompous; next the plain and simple; now the vales of Tempe; then the fields of Kent or Cornwall; and could not decide whether he was the divinest genius or the greatest fool in the world.
β
β
Virginia Woolf (Orlando)
β
He wanted to think of words that would make some difference but there were none in any language he knew that were sufficient to the moment or that would change a single thing.
β
β
Kent Haruf (Eventide (Plainsong, #2))
β
He tastes like my own downfall and Iβm ready to drown in it.
β
β
Rina Kent (God of Fury (Legacy of Gods, #5))
β
Let me go. Iβm pissed off at you right now.β He nuzzles his nose in my cheek. βI told you, we can be mad at each other while I touch you.β I
β
β
Rina Kent (Steel Princess (Royal Elite, #2))
β
Memories shift like loose snow in a wind, or are a chorale of ghosts all talking over one another. There is only ever a sense that what is real to me is not real to others, and to share a memory with someone is to risk sullying my belief in what has truly happened.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
This notebook might be all I have left of her. My hand is still hovering over the cover, tempting me to open it and find her again, even if itβs only for a short while, even if itβs only on paper. But part of me is terrified. This might not end well. This might not be anything I want to see. And so help me, if this turns out to be some kind of diary concerning her thoughts and feelings about Kent, I might just throw myself out the window.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Destroy Me (Shatter Me, #1.5))
β
I do love this physical world. I love this physical life with you. And the air and the country. The backyard, the gravel in the back alley. The grass. The cool nights. Lying in bed talking with you in the dark.
β
β
Kent Haruf (Our Souls at Night)
β
Spreading your legs wonβt get you out of my system. I love owning your body, but thatβs not the only thing Iβm interested in.β βThen what else do you want?β His voice drops in a haunting whisper. βEvery. Fucking. Thing.
β
β
Rina Kent (Deviant King (Royal Elite, #1))
β
If we were perfect, the light he shines on us would just bounce right off. But the wrinkles, they catch the light. And the cracks, thatβs how the light gets inside us. When I pray, Odie, I never pray for perfection. I pray for forgiveness, because itβs the one prayer I know will always be answered.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (This Tender Land)
β
Youβre the most beautiful thing on earth,β he whispers against my neck, peppering kisses there as he meets my gaze in the mirror. βIβm lucky you allowed me in your life.β Kiss. βIβm lucky you love me.β Kiss. βIβm lucky youβre letting me fight your demons with you.
β
β
Rina Kent (God of Fury (Legacy of Gods, #5))
β
I remain quiet. I am determined to close myself to the world, to tighten my heart and hold what has not yet been stolen from me. I cannot let myself slip away. I will hold what I am inside, and keep my hands tight around all the things I have seen and heard, and felt.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
and what I know from my studies and from my life is that there is no such thing as a true event. We know dates and times and locations and participants but accounts of what happened depend upon the perspective from which the event is viewed.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (Ordinary Grace)
β
God never promised us an easy life. He never promised that we wouldnβt suffer, that we wouldnβt feel despair and loneliness and confusion and desperation. What he did promise was that in our suffering we would never be alone. And though we may sometimes make ourselves blind and deaf to his presence he is beside us and around us and within us always. We are never separated from his love. And he promised us something else, the most important promise of all. That there would be surcease. That there would be an end to our pain and our suffering and our loneliness, that we would be with him and know him, and this would be heaven.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (Ordinary Grace)
β
Iβve come to understand that thereβs a good deal of value in the ritual accompanying death. Itβs hard to say good- bye and almost impossible to accomplish this alone and ritual is the railing we hold to, all of us together, that keeps us upright and connected until the worst is past.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (Ordinary Grace)
β
That's when it happens. The moment of death is full of heat and sound and pain bigger than anything, a funnel of burning heat splitting me in two, something searing and scorching and tearing, and if screaming were a feeling it would be this.
Then nothing. I know some of you are thinking maybe I deserved it. Maybe I shouldn't have sent that rose to Juliet or dumped my drink on her at the party. Maybe I shouldn't have copied off of Lauren Lornet's quiz. Maybe I shouldn't have said those things to Kent. There are probably some of you who think I deserved it because I was going to let Rob go all the way--because I wasn't going to save myself.
But before you start pointing fingers, is what I did really so bad? So bad I deserved to die? So bad I deserved to die like THAT?
Is what I did really so much worse than what anybody else does?
Is it really so much worse than what YOU do?
Think about it.
β
β
Lauren Oliver (Before I Fall)
β
A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a
base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,
hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a
lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,
glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue;
one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a
bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but
the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar,
and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I
will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest
the least syllable of thy addition.
β
β
William Shakespeare (King Lear)
β
Remember to be gentle with yourself and others. We are all children of chance, and none can say while some fields will blossom and others lay brown beneath the August sun. Care for those around you. Look past your differences. Their dreams are no less than yours, their choices in life no more easily made. And give. Give in any way you can, of whatever you possess. To give is to love. To withhold is to wither. Care less for your harvest than how is shared, and your life will have meaning and your heart will have peace.
β
β
Kent Nerburn
β
I will tell you what's left, three profound blessings. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul tells us exactly what they are: faith, hope, and love,. These gifts, which are the foundation of eternity, God has given to us and he's given us complete control over them. Even in the darkest night it's still within our power to hold faith. We can still embrace hope. And although we may feel ourselves unloved we can still stand steadfast in our love for others and for God. All this is in our control. God gave us these gifts and he does not take them back. It is we who chooses to discard them.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (Ordinary Grace)
β
Understand this, Glyndon, there's nothing noble or tender about what I feel for you. It's violent volcano of obsession, possession, and deranged lust. If you want love, then I do love you, but it's the unorthodox version of love. I love you enough to let you within my walls. I love you enough to let you talk to my demons. I love you enough to allow you to have a hold over me when I've never allowed anyone to have the power to destroy me from inside out.
β
β
Rina Kent (God of Malice (Legacy of Gods, #1))
β
So I take a deep breath.
Step forward.
Let go.
10 seconds and I'm trying to breathe
9
And I'm trying to be brave
8
But the truth is I'm scared out of my mind
7
And I have no idea what's waiting for me behind that door
6
And I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a heart attack
5
But I can't turn back now
4
Because there it is
3
The door is right in front of me
2
All I have to do is knock
1
Butthe door flies open first.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Unravel Me (Shatter Me, #2))
β
This story was written many moons ago under an apple tree in an orchard in Kent, which is one of England's prettiest counties . . . I had read at least twenty of the [fairy tales] when I noticed something that had never struck me before--I suppose because I had always taken it for granted. All the princesses, apart from such rare exceptions as Snow White, were blond, blue-eyed, and beautiful, with lovely figures and complexions and extravagantly long hair. This struck me as most unfair, and suddenly I began to wonder just how many handsome young princes would have asked a king for the hand of his daughter if that daughter had happened to be gawky, snub-nosed, and freckled, with shortish mouse-colored hair? None, I suspected. They would all have been of chasing after some lissome Royal Highness with large blue eyes and yards of golden hair and probably nothing whatever between her ears! It was in that moment that a story about a princess who turned out to be ordinary jumped into my mind, and the very next morning I took my pencil box and a large rough-notebook down to the orchard and, having settled myself under an apple tree in full bloom, began to write . . . the day was warm and windless and without a cloud in the sky. A perfect day and a perfect place to write a fairy story.
β
β
M.M. Kaye (The Ordinary Princess)
β
And so we know the satisfaction of hate. We know the sweet joy of revenge. How it feels good to get even. Oh, that was a nice idea Jesus had. That was a pretty notion, but you can't love people who do evil. It's neither sensible or practical. It's not wise to the world to love people who do such terrible wrong. There is no way on earth we can love our enemies. They'll only do wickedness and hatefulness again. And worse, they'll think they can get away with this wickedness and evil, because they'll think we're weak and afraid. What would the world come to?
But I want to say to you here on this hot July morning in Holt, what if Jesus wasn't kidding? What if he wasn't talking about some never-never land? What if he really did mean what he said two thousand years ago? What if he was thoroughly wise to the world and knew firsthand cruelty and wickedness and evil and hate? Knew it all so well from personal firsthand experience? And what if in spite of all that he knew, he still said love your enemies? Turn your cheek. Pray for those who misuse you. What if he meant every word of what he said? What then would the world come to?
And what if we tried it? What if we said to our enemies: We are the most powerful nation on earth. We can destroy you. We can kill your children. We can make ruins of your cities and villages and when we're finished you won't even know how to look for the places where they used to be. We have the power to take away your water and to scorch your earth, to rob you of the very fundamentals of life. We can change the actual day into actual night. We can do these things to you. And more.
But what if we say, Listen: Instead of any of these, we are going to give willingly and generously to you. We are going to spend the great American national treasure and the will and the human lives that we would have spent on destruction, and instead we are going to turn them all toward creation. We'll mend your roads and highways, expand your schools, modernize your wells and water supplies, save your ancient artifacts and art and culture, preserve your temples and mosques. In fact, we are going to love you. And again we say, no matter what has gone before, no matter what you've done: We are going to love you. We have set our hearts to it. We will treat you like brothers and sisters. We are going to turn our collective national cheek and present it to be stricken a second time, if need be, and offer it to you. Listen, we--
But then he was abruptly halted.
β
β
Kent Haruf (Benediction (Plainsong, #3))
β
It isnβt Easter,β he said, βbut this week has caused me to think a lot about the Easter story. Not the glorious resurrection that we celebrate on Easter Sunday but the darkness that came before. I know of no darker moment in the Bible than the moment Jesus in his agony on the cross cries out, βFather, why have you forsaken me?β Darker even than his death not long after because in death Jesus at last gave himself over fully to the divine will of God. But in that moment of his bitter railing he must have felt betrayed and completely abandoned by his father, a father heβd always believed loved him deeply and absolutely. How terrible that must have been and how alone he must have felt. In dying all was revealed to him, but alive Jesus like us saw with mortal eyes, felt the pain of mortal flesh, and knew the confusion of imperfect mortal understanding. βI see with mortal eyes. My mortal heart this morning is breaking. And I do not understand. βI confess that I have cried out to God, βWhy have you forsaken me?β β Here my father paused and I thought he could not continue. But after a long moment he seemed to gather himself and went on. βWhen we feel abandoned, alone, and lost, whatβs left to us? What do I have, what do you have, what do any of us have left except the overpowering temptation to rail against God and to blame him for the dark night into which heβs led us, to blame him for our misery, to blame him and cry out against him for not caring? Whatβs left to us when that which we love most has been taken? βI will tell you whatβs left, three profound blessings. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul tells us exactly what they are: faith, hope, and love. These gifts, which are the foundation of eternity, God has given to us and heβs given us complete control over them. Even in the darkest night itβs still within our power to hold to faith. We can still embrace hope. And although we may ourselves feel unloved we can still stand steadfast in our love for others and for God. All this is in our control. God gave us these gifts and he does not take them back. It is we who choose to discard them. βIn your dark night, I urge you to hold to your faith, to embrace hope, and to bear your love before you like a burning candle, for I promise that it will light your way. βAnd whether you believe in miracles or not, I can guarantee that you will experience one. It may not be the miracle youβve prayed for. God probably wonβt undo whatβs been done. The miracle is this: that you will rise in the morning and be able to see again the startling beauty of the day. βJesus suffered the dark night and death and on the third day he rose again through the grace of his loving father. For each of us, the sun sets and the sun also rises and through the grace of our Lord we can endure our own dark night and rise to the dawning of a new day and rejoice. βI invite you, my brothers and sisters, to rejoice with me in the divine grace of the Lord and in the beauty of this morning, which he has given us.
β
β
William Kent Krueger (Ordinary Grace)