My answer to a friend: There is no success in ministry, only service and moments of celebration. If you choose to minister, expect to be misunderstood. All of the pain people carry will fall upon your brow, and you shall be the stand-in for every ignorant statement...
When you live in Culture War Mode there is always a battle to fight, a side to take, and people to fear. When you live in God's Kingdom there's always a stranger to welcome, a neighbor to befriend, and an enemy to love. --from Love Over Fear
Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters. Talk to people you know. Talk to people you don't know. Talk to people you never talk to... Remember, you don't fear people whose story you know.
The cave you fear to enter may hold the light you seek.
You can be flawed, anxious and sometimes irritated, but don't forget that your life is the greatest company in the world. Only you can prevent her from going into decline. There are many who appreciate, admire and love you. And you don't know but there are people for...
One of the biggest things that made me doubt the Evangelical Christianity of my past was actually meeting all the people I was told to fear, distrust, and treat as my “enemy,” only to find that they were incredible, kind, thoughtful, complex and beautiful people loved...
Beware systems and identities that need: 1. A Strongmanand2. A Scapegoat There will be no end of violence when these two exist. They legitimate and fuel each other. Jesus demonstrates how demonically futile the Strongman/Scapegoat mechanism is in his death and...
Personally, I don't think I've ever heard the devil's voice before; but if I have, it bears a really strong resemblance to my own. It is the taunting voice always hovering in the periphery in my head, waiting for me to make a mistake so it can pounce on the failure...
Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.
Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty. from The Gifts of Imperfection