Dan

“When J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was published in the 1950s, a woman named Rhona Beare wrote Tolkien and asked him about the chapter in which the Ring of Power is destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. When the ring is melted, the Dark Lord’s entire power collapses and melts away with it. She found it inexplicable that this unassailable, overwhelming power would be wiped out by the erasure of such a little object. Tolkien replied that at the heart of the plot was the Dark Lord’s effort to magnify and maximize his power by placing so much of it in the ring. He wrote: “The Ring of Sauron is only one of the various mythical treatments of the placing of one’s life, or power, in some external object, which is thus exposed to capture or destruction with disastrous results to oneself.”
― Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

“So many men spend their lives looking for some other stream to finally and forever quench the thirsts of their souls. However, Jesus says there is no other stream. And He is very clear about the fact that if we do not drink from this spring—the fountain of living water— we will die.”
― Richard E. Simmons III, The True Measure of a Man, How Perceptions of Success, Achievement & Recognition Fail Men in Difficult Times

“Character, wisdom, and love make up the essence of what it means to be an authentic man. In fact, I would like to address the significance of each of these qualities and why it is so important that we possess them.”
― Richard E. Simmons III, The True Measure of a Man, How Perceptions of Success, Achievement & Recognition Fail Men in Difficult Times

“Humility helps you to recognize that all you are and all you have is a gift from God and a result of other people contributing to your life.”
― Richard E. Simmons III, The True Measure of a Man, How Perceptions of Success, Achievement & Recognition Fail Men in Difficult Times