The Lesson That Has Been Hardest For

Your Life Is A Gift And How You Respond To It - What You Do With It Matters. That's Where I Start.

Take Faith, For Example. For Many People In Our World, The Opposite Of Faith Is Doubt. The Goal, Then, Within This Understanding, Is To Eliminate Doubt. But Faith And Doubt Aren't Opposites. Doubt Is Often A Sign That Your Faith Has A Pulse, That It's Alive And Well And Exploring And Searching. Faith And Doubt Aren't Opposites, They Are, It Turns Out, Excellent Dance Partners.

Missions Then Is Less About The Transportation Of God From One Place To Another And More About The Identification Of A God Who Is Already There [...] You See God Where Others Don't. And Then You Point Him Out. So The Issue Isn't So Much Taking Jesus To People Who Don't Have Him, But Going To A Place And Pointing Out To The People The Creative, Life-giving God Who Is Already Present In Their Midst.

Any Time Someone Makes You Feel Guilty About How You Are Living, That Is Part Of The Old System (pre-christ).

When Isaiah Predicted That Spears Would Become Pruning Hooks, That's A Reference To Cultivating. Pruning And Trimming And Growing And Paying Close Attention To The Plants And Whether They're Getting Enough Water And If Their Roots Are Deep Enough. Soil Under The Fingernails, Grapes Being Trampled Under Bare Feet, Fingers Sticky From Handling Fresh Fruit. It's That Green Stripe You Get Around The Sole Of Your Shoes When You Mow The Lawn. Life In The Age To Come. Earthy.