The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you.  Blessings, Jim Whiddon

261. SALVATION “the Bible doesn’t agree with the view that it’s hard to find out about God. It claims that people make it hard. The apostle Paul wrote that the truth about God was “plain” to the pagans and that in some sense they “knew” it but that they “suppressed” it by their wickedness (see Romans 1:18-23). Jesus made this even clearer by saying that those who seek will find. If this is true, then those who don’t find aren’t wholeheartedly seeking—they are just telling themselves that they are (see Matthew 7:7-8).”
Excerpt From: Budziszewski, J. “How to Stay Christian in College.”

262. SEX = COMMITMENT? “Love is a commitment of the will to the true good of another person, but we also said that its seal is the binding promise of marriage. Before that point, everything is reversible, even engagement. So how can you tell whether you’ve got a commitment? Simple. If you’re married, you have one. If you’re not married, you don’t. Do you have a boyfriend who says he’s committed to you but he’s just not ready for marriage? He’s lying.”
Excerpt From: Budziszewski, J. “How to Stay Christian in College.”

263. PROVIDENCE “[we] stumbled upon the little town of Saint Buryan, in Southern England – a crossroad in the country with a pub, a decaying church, and a graveyard. We stopped and read a few of the gravestones. One that was barely legible commemorated a family that lived in the 1600s. Buried beneath the stone were the mother, who gave birth to a son and died just ten days later at the age of twenty-four; her son, who lived thirteen months; and the father, who died a few days later at age twenty-five.
The faded words on that weathered limestone grave marker [said this]:
“We cannot, Lord, Thy purpose see
But all is well that’s done by Thee.”
Excerpt From: Rainey, Dennis. “Stepping Up.”

264. SUCCESS “Believing that making money is a selfish activity will undermine anyone’s chances of success.”
Excerpt From: Rabbi Daniel Lapin. “Thou Shall Prosper.”

265. SAYING ‘NO’ “It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.”
— Leonardo deVinci

266. RAISING CHRISTIANS “An overprotected generation has been sold the lie that “Christian living” means material blessing, automatic protection, and bulletproof safety. Two millennia of Christian martyrs beg to differ, and many young adults today are interested in those martyrs’ lives of jeopardy and fulfillment. They are desperate for a new way to understand and experience the worthy risks of following Christ. Life without some sense of urgency—a life that is safe, incubated, insular, overprotected, consumptive—is not worth living. The next generation is aching for influence, for significance, for lives of meaning and impact. Think of your favorite film or novel. Invariably the best stories, regardless of medium, involve significant hazards for the characters. We care about characters for whom the stakes are high—yet we have done all we can to lower the stakes for the newest real-life protagonists in God’s grand, risky story.”
Excerpt From: Kinnaman, David. “You Lost Me.”

267. TRIALS Daniel prayed for deliverance from King Darius’ decision to throw him in the lion’s den. But God did not deliver him UNTIL he was already in the den. Sometimes God let’s you go into the den because that is where He will show Himself to you.
–CS Lewis

268. SPORTS “Lacking the emotional skills to discern the damage to my sense of self, I sought approval from Dah [my dad] through sports and my achievements on the field. I continued to think that if I played well, he would give me acceptance and a gesture of approval. It was an unabashed transaction, a conditional relationship that my father used to try to turn me into the man he wanted me to be. And I complied.
But there is not a more flawed measure of a child’s value than sports. The playing fields are uneven; genetics skew the results in favor of the proper body type for each sport; dedication and determination can do only so much. And yet some parents and coaches use performance as the measure of a child’s worth.”
Excerpt From: Joe Ehrmann, Paula Ehrmann & Gregory Jordan. “InSideOut Coaching.”

269. PROVIDENCE Technically worms don’t have hearts but five aortic arches that for simplicity’s sake are commonly called “hearts.” The aortic arch functions as a heart, although there are no chambers. Worms also don’t have lungs. They absorb oxygen through their skin and then it gets into their blood vessels. The dorsal blood vessel does a bit of the pumping work, with the hearts helping to keep the blood pressure steady. I know you have a pretty busy life with a lot going on, but take a minute to think about how God regulates blood pressure. Not your blood pressure, but the blood pressure of the earthworms in the ground below you. That’s how detailed the providence of God truly is. He governs the entire universe, and if He even governs the blood pressure of worms, that simple fact should reduce your blood pressure. In other words, if He’s taking care of the worms, He’s obviously got you covered too.” Excerpt From: Farrar, Steve. “Real Valor.”

270. REDEMPTION It is said that “every man has his price.” The reality is the price for you has already been paid. Jesus did it.
–Steve Ferrar