6.27.2008

safely home


"Few men achieve all their goals," Quan said. "But if you achieved all of yours, would it bring you joy?"

"Joy? I guess I'd settle for just a slice of happiness."

"Then you would settle for too little."

"What do you mean?"

"I had goals much like yours...I had to die to those goals. But I was fortunate to die to them. For then I was forced to set other goals, better ones...I do not think your goals are too big, I think they are too small."

"So far I've done alright. I've always managed to get what I've wanted."

"Then you have wanted too little. Your goals will surely not bring you happiness. But even if they did, how long would the happiness last? A day? A year? Ten years? Twenty? And then what? Your life will be short--all men's lives are short. What will outlast this life? That should be your concern. You are an invester? Alright--why would you invest in what might pay off in ten years when you can invest in what will certainly pay off in ten million years?"

"That kind of long-range planning is a little out of my league."

"Your deepest desires come from what my father called the hole in the heart. What does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or even if a man's soul is saved, what does it profit him to gain the world and lose his eternal reward?"

Excerpt from Safely Home by Randy Alcorn
page 147

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"When you longed for a great house in that world," the King said, "you were longing for my house. You just didn't know it. My children there never dream too big, you know. They dream too small. They set their sights far too low. They chose to play in the mud on a cold rainy day when I offer them open green meadows in the sun, clear flowing streams, majestic mountains, and endless beaches and blue skies that stretch to the stars themselves, stars that are gateways to innumberable worlds beyond. The sons of Adam try so hard to be satisfied with so little--which keeps them from ever being satisfied at all."

Excerpt from Safely Home by Randy Alcorn
page 377

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

reminds me a lot of Pilgrims Regress