humility

C.S. Lewis once said, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less."

Paul's marks and the gospel of grace

Just finished reading Galatians tonight and was struck by Paul's closing statement: "From now one let no one cause me trouble, for I bear in my body the marks of the Jesus."  This is in contrast to those who want to boast about their "marks" of circumcision and adherence to the law in order to avoid the persecution that fell on those who professed the true gospel of salvation by faith and grace alone that Paul preached.

Paul had previously asked, "But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted?  In that case the offense of the cross has been removed."  And then followed by saying, "It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ."

Paul would rather suffer in his body for the righteousness by faith than endure a false gospel of man centered, works based righteousness.  "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

Mark Twain: Ken Burns film

http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/

Mark Twain's learning about people

"During the two or two and a half years of my apprenticeship, I served under many pilots, and had experience of many kinds of steamboatmen and many varieties of steamboats; for it was not always convenient for Mr. Bixby to have me with him, and in such cases he sent me with somebody else.  I am to this day profiting somewhat by that experience; for in that brief, sharp schooling, I got personally and familiarly acquainted with about all the different types of human nature that are to be found in fiction, biography, or history.  The fact is daily borne in upon me, that the average shore-employment requires as much as forty years to equip a man with this sort of an education.  When I say I am still profiting by this thing, I do not mean that it has constituted me a judge of men--no, it has not done that; for judges of men are born, not made.  My profit is various in kind and degree; but the feature of it which I value most is the zest which that early experience has given to my later reading.  When I find a well-drawn character in fiction or biography, I generally take a warm personal interest in him, for the reason that I have known him before--met him on the river."  from Life on the Mississippi

--The pilots and characters that Twain describes in this book are indeed "well-drawn" and full of color.

Voyage of the Paper Canoe

Here's a travel journal from 1874 about a guy who paddled from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico in a 16' paper canoe (he seems to have traded an 18' canoe for the paper one in NY).  Part of his journey took him inside the NC Outer Banks.  The NC section begins on page 88.  Fascinating stuff. 

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1444506&pageno=6