"'You can't tell people for two or three generations, as even some theologians have, that truth is relative and that nothing is absolute-and then expect them to produce justice...You can't tell people that truth is relative and expect them to produce good government, worthwhile education, or honest business. So it's not just a little tinkering here and there that is necessary to get our confidence in the court systems back again...No system of any kind works when the people themselves have lost their way.'" -Joel Belz, World, October 14, 1995.

"Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism. - Hunter S. Thompson

Absolutes

"May you live all the days of your life." - Jonathan Swift

"A university professor tells of being invited to speak at a military base one December and there meeting an unforgettable soldier named Ralph. Ralph had been sent to meet him at the airport, and after they had introduced themselves, they headed toward the baggage claim. As they walked down the concourse, Ralph kept disappearing. Once to help an older woman whose suitcase had fallen open. Once to lift two toddlers up to where they could see Santa Claus. And again to give directions to someone who was lost. Each time he I came back with a big smile on his face.

'Where did you learn to do that?' the professor asked.

'Do what?' Ralph said.

'Where did you learn to live like that?'

'Oh,' Ralph said, 'during the war, I guess.' Then he told the professor about his tour of duty in Vietmam, about how it was his job to clear mine fields, and how he watched his friends blow up before his eyes, one after another. 'I learned to live between steps,' he said. 'I never knew whether the next one would be my last, so I learned to get everything I could out of the moment between when I picked up my foot and when I put it down again. Every step I took was a whole new world, and I guess I've just been that way ever since.'"

"The abundance of our lives is not determined by how long we live, but how well we live. Christ makes abundant life possible if we choose to live it now." - Barbara Brown Taylor, Clarkesville, Georgia

Abundant Life

"Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed." - anonymous

Accountability

"Adultery is something that shakes the roots of the family, which is why most people who attempted open marriage in the '60s and '70s came back to monogamy-for pragmatic reasons. I find myself in a situation where I would rather give up sexual freedom than give up trust." - Erica Jong, who wrote books in the '70s advocating sexual freedom (quoted in Citizen, Oct. 20, 1997, page 8)

Adultery

"God wants us to have purpose. We must be careful not to settle for ambition." - Max Anders

"Average people look forward to 'getting off.' Successful people look forward to 'getting on.'" - Jim Rohn, First Draft, April 1998

Ambition

"Many people literally stuff their anger-they keep it down by putting food on top of it. This process is similar to packing in wadding when loading a cannon - and the results can be just as explosive." - Love Hunger by F. Minirth

"Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight." - Phyllis Diller

"Every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness." - anonymous

"Anger. It can explode like an erupting volcano; it can also sizzle slowly, breeding bitterness and resentment. It's sometimes disguised through sarcasm, grudges, fearfulness, or rebellion, but the long-term effects are always predictable. Physical health, mental well-being, and interpersonal relationships begin to deteriorate when anger is continually handled in a spiritually destructive manner. The emotion of anger in itself is not sin, for God is righteously indignant over man's sin every day. But the snare of human rage manifests our selfishness." - anonymous

"I'm supposed to hate something, but I'm not sure what. I wasn't even here last year, and I'm mad. - Marty Carter, safety for the Chicago Bears, on their rivalry with the Green Bay Packers

"It is the great duty of all Christians to put off anger. It unfits for duty…a man cannot wrestle with God and wrangle with his neighbor at the same time. Short sins often cost us long and sad sorrows." - Philip Henry

"In a 1994 article, 'War's Lethal Leftovers Threaten Europeans,' Associated Press reporter Christopher Burns writes: 'The bombs of World War II are still killing in Europe. They turn up - and sometimes blow up - at construction sites, in fishing nets, or on beaches fifty years after the guns fell silent. 'Hundreds of tons of explosives are recovered every year in France alone. Thirteen old bombs exploded in France last year, killing twelve people and wounding eleven, the Interior Minister said. 'I've lost two of my colleagues,' said Yvon Bouvet, who heads a government team in the Champagne-Ardennes region that defuses explosives from both World War I and II… 'Unexploded bombs become more dangerous with time, Bouvet said. 'With the corrosion inside, the weapon becomes more unstable, the detonator can be exposed.' What is true of lingering bombs is also true of lingering anger. Buried anger will explode when we least expect it." - Barry McGee, Anderson, California

Anger