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Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2"The greatest saints are not those who need less grace, but those who consume the most grace, who indeed are most in need of grace -- those who are saturated by grace in every dimension of their being. Grace to them is like breath."
-- Dallas Willard, *The Great Omission*
"To will is to detract from freedom. A man is most free when he has given himself over completely to the divine will, for then his own will is lost. When the will is lost, it is not asked what one wills."
-- Thomas Aquinas, *De Veritate*
"God made man like a shadow and like a passing breeze; not because He was powerless, but because He saw that such a nature suits us best. For if we were immortal while yet sinners, we would never be freed from our sins. It was His goodness, then, that He did not make us altogether immortal, but rather permitted us to die and return to dust, so that, freed from the burden of sin, we might rise again."
-- John Chrysostom, *Homily on 1 Corinthians 15*
"The act of Christian obedience is an act of self-denial. It is the renunciation of the right to be the author of one's own life. But the irony is that this renunciation is precisely the means by which the self is recovered. The paradox of the obedient life: you must lose your life to find it. There is no other way."
-- Eugene Peterson, *A Long Obedience in the Same Direction*
If the renewal of your mind were measured not by what you believe but by what you no longer react to, what would the evidence say?
"How long will you wait to demand the best of yourself? You have been given the principles you need, and you have understood them. What sort of teacher, then, do you still wait for? You are no longer a boy -- you are a grown man. If you are negligent and lazy, always making delay after delay, setting one day after another as the day for paying attention to yourself, you will not notice that you are making no progress, but will end up a non-philosopher all through life and through death."
-- Epictetus, *Enchiridion* 51 (as preserved in the *Discourses*)
Sunny, 56°F, Humidity 88%, Wind ↗ 8mph -- St. Clair, Michigan