Change we can believe in...

The quote was taken from the preface of a play by John Patrick Shanley that was also made into a movie currently in theaters.  I like how the writer acknowledges that it can often be a frustrating, scary, and painful experience for us to truly change, but we have to do it anyway.  

"It is Doubt (so often experienced initially as weakness) that changes things.  When a man feels unsteady, when he falters, when hard-won knowledge evaporates before his eyes, he's on the verge of growth.  The subtle or violent reconciliation of the outer person and the inner core often seems at first like a mistake, like you've gone the wrong way and you're lost.  But this is just emotion longing for the familiar.  Life happens when the tectonic power of your speechless soul breaks through the dead habits of the mind.  Doubt is nothing less than an opportunity to reenter the Present."

- John Patrick Shanley

Doubt: a parable

"Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides.  You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.  So don't try to get out of anything prematurely.  Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way."

- James 1: 2-4 (The Message)

Selah.

- S.