The love for equals is a human thing — of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles. The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing — the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world. The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing — to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man.…
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Buechner on Teaching
To teach a class, whether you do it well or badly, is to achieve fifty minutes of self-forgetfulness. More even than the long summer vacations, it is the principle side-benefit that the profession offers.
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Buechner on the Barely Hidden Splendor of God
Lord, catch us off guard today. Surprise us with some moment of beauty or pain so that for at least a moment we may be startled into seeing that you are with us here in all your splendor, always and everywhere, barely hidden, beneath, beyond, within this life we breathe.
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Buechner and Miracles
"When you get right down to it, dear, you see, people don't want miracles." "But that's what they do want," I said. "Get the rumor started that a statue of the Virgin's nose has started to run, and within twenty-four hours people will be lined up six deep." Brownie said, "Little miracles, yes. People will flock to little ones like that the way they would flock to a magic show. But you take a real miracle, like resurrection — nobody wants those kind, dear, because they make it so you've got to believe whether you want to or not." "You're crazy," I said. "That's just the kind people do want."…
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Telling the Truth (Book Recommendation)
"The comedy of the gospel is the surprise grace of God that wrests humanity from sin and death and gives it unexpected and outlandish hope and purpose."
