The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.
-- Proverbs 16:1-3 (ESV)
Augustine, Confessions I.1:
You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity:
God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and that is why it will not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because there is no such thing.
John Chrysostom, Homily 12 on Philippians:
Chrysostom, preaching on Paul's words to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," does not let his hearers collapse into self-reliance. He insists that the working-out is itself a gift -- that God is the one who energizes both the willing and the doing. The fear is not servile terror but the sobriety of a man who knows he builds on another's foundation. "It is God who works in you," Paul says, and Chrysostom presses the point: the man who labors without this awareness labors in vain. The plans of the heart belong to man, yes -- but the establishing belongs to God. Chrysostom will not let you separate the two.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ I.1:
At the Day of Judgment, we shall not be asked what we have read, but what we have done; not how well we have spoken, but how holily we have lived.
What plan are you executing today that you never actually committed to God -- you just assumed He endorsed it?
Epictetus, Enchiridion 1:
Some things are in our control and others not. In our control are opinion, motivation, desire, aversion -- in a word, whatever is our own doing. Not in our control are our body, our property, reputation, office -- in a word, whatever is not our own doing.
St. Clair, MI -- Monday, July 13
Sunny and hot, high near 91°F. West-southwest wind 0 to 6 mph. Tonight mostly clear, low around 70°F with southwest wind around 6 mph. Tomorrow brings a significant heat surge -- highs near 99°F with heat index values reaching 105°F. Hydrate early. The work doesn't pause for the heat; your body does if you ignore it.