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The last couple of weeks have been a huge reminder to me that there is still more goodness in this world than bad.
It is always the transformation of the smallest part that leads to the transformation of the whole. 
We groan and cry out in this painful life experience together. 
The cold, hard fact is that there are prayers that God does not answer.
During this time, will we begin to walk together to discover opportunities to learn and be transformed or will we be consumed by despair and antipathy?
Who can stand before this cosmically-sized love without being completely transformed?
Either way, you will ultimately face then refiner’s fire.
The problem is that Hell is never once mentioned in the Bible.
When you are confronted with the reality of an undeserved kindness, it can be transformative.
The word wrath isn’t an unloading of God’s fury and rage on the unrepentant.
Should we pray for the president?
The most misunderstood word in all of Christianity.
There is a crushing agony to experiencing so much stillness and peace and serenity, but then walking back into so much antipathy, hatred, and division. 
There are many people who struggle to understand a God who unconditionally and preemptively forgives everyone.
The forgiveness of God is unconditional and preemptive.
Where O Light are you in this darkness?
You may not trust these words now, but there is hope in your pain and suffering.
God, I am done with you.
We live in an age in which stimulation and consumption are all too normal in our lives.
All you have to do is walk outside and take a deep breath and accept the invitation.
The Good News of the Kingdom of God is not one of the many things.  It is the thing.
Our house church lost a beautiful young man, Abbott Forrester Garn, this week. His family has been an intimate part of our lives for the last decade. I offered these words at the funeral in the midst of the tragedy.
In my experience, the only place where the superficial veneer is stripped away, where pretense is obliterated, where cosmetic application fails, and where vulnerability is unmasked and triumphantly exposed... is in the presence of a loving, non-judgmental, other-centered group of trusted friends.
Our heads told us that this was the right decision, but nothing told our hearts to prepare for being wrecked.
There is an ever-present reality into which we can enter, a realm into which we are continually invited, where love wholly embraces, mends broken-hearts, births a new way of living, gives eyes to see people and the world differently, and changes each one of us in such a profound way that thanksgiving becomes the very essence of our being, and the perpetual outflow of our spirit.
The church of the future is around a table- breaking bread and taking the cup together. It is where we move from a personal, individualized faith to a place of shared, relational, and communal faith as a family.
In the barrios, the Church my daughter and I were a part of that day was the light of Christ breaking into darkness.
We marry as a celebration, as a signpost, of how God takes two beautiful and unique individuals and brings them gloriously together as one.
I know who I am today and I know what role I play in this life because of my mother.
We live in a culture that does not stop, that does not rest, that does not breathe, and does not understand our desperate need for sacred space.
The great blessing of faith I received from my father was greater than the very foundations of the earth.
I can courageously face another day, another week, another year because I have a family ready to receive me and shower me with love and acceptance.
Each of you have had a part in Caroline’s life, molding her and shaping her into the person she is.
Every single time we take the humble and submissive way of Christ, it may look like defeat for you as an individual.
Through worship, the Spirit of God breaks out into the world in prayer, in praise, in service putting broken pieces back together.