jesus

Pacifist Fight Club

Crissy Brooks — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:06:00 -0800

Last Saturday I joined a ragtag bunch of Jesus followers for the first Pacifist Fight Club. What started as a joke between Keith Giles and Chase Andre somehow led to 25 people wrestling about how to follow Jesus, especially when it comes to non violence and poverty. We brought chili and chips and all our questions to the table. While we did not figure it all out, we did walk away inspired to keep fighting for peace and comforted that we are not alone in our questions and struggle.

The invitation to Pacifist Fight Club came at a time in my life when I was battling. My prayer life felt like the frontlines of a war. I felt attacked and exhausted, yet empowered and strong. It felt like Jesus and I were getting things done in the spiritual realm. I hid behind him and fought for my life. I stood with a shield of faith held up for my friends. I came out swinging with the Word of God. My prayers felt productive and mighty. I ran into the presence of God excited for the fight. I really like fighting with Jesus in this way. I saw him working things out in life's circumstances and found I could rest and trust. So when the invitation to Pacifist Fight Club came I was intrigued. What does it look like to fight for peace? How do I stand with a Warrior Savior who has said, "blessed are the peacemakers" and "turn the other cheek"?

I still don't fully know but I am invited deeper into the question by the faith journey of those who were around the table last Saturday. The fight is not over. We will gather again. You can meet our fighters and get in on the struggle on the blog- Pacifist Fight Club.

When Hate Rules, Our Children Fall

Laurie Russell — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:48:49 -0800

Last week, we passed the 1-year anniversary of the horrific day in Tucson, Arizona. On January 8, 2011, a lone shooter shot U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and eighteen other people. Six died, including 9-year-old Christiana-Taylor Green.

Recently I read the book As Good As She Imagined by Roaxanna Green and Jerry B. Jenkins. It’s a wonderful book that portrays the life of this 9-year-old, Christina-Taylor. My heart mourned for the victims and their families but especially for the Green family. No one wants to lose his or her child.

Green and Jenkins share stories from Christina-Taylor’s short life and I couldn’t help but fall in love with her and her family. It’s reminded me of the importance of community, love of family and how enduring challenges develops the perseverance needed to survive later trials.

It encouraged me to enjoy each moment with my loved ones. Not to sweat the small stuff and to avoid passivity. Christina-Taylor did a lot in her 9-years on earth and she left us with her mark and a smile.

The book does a great job not to glorify the shooter, however, part of me kept going back to him and wondering, “Why did he do it?”

Years ago, when we were preparing to go as missionaries overseas, Mark studied five common traits that start a movement. One of the greatest unifying factors was a common enemy. People normally at odds bond as they fight and, at times, are pushed to do things they normally wouldn’t do.

We don’t know why the shooter went on a killing rampage. Maybe it was politically motivated.

A voting year is upon us. Emotions are already flying and people are bonding over a common “enemy”. Adversaries are being named and their reputations are being destroyed.

However, when we view another as an enemy, hate is born. It brews and boils and moves us to action(s) and ones we often regret.

Jesus told us to love our enemies. It’s a pretty radical request and not always easy to do. We shouldn’t look at our neighbor as the enemy, even if we disagree or dislike what they say or do.

When we pray for our enemies, God’s power is at work in both them and us. We’re able to love and find real peace.

Before his crucifixion, Jesus prayed that we’d be united. Politics by nature divides us but at the same time it puts his children in each party. Perhaps this is God’s strategic way of shining his light on all sides.

As the debates and campaigns continue, think of Christina-Taylor. She was not at Giffords’ meeting to promote hate, rather to do good. We need to make sure we’re not working to defeat the enemy in the other party but to find the next man or woman God has chosen to lead our country.

Hate blurs our vision but love helps us to see clearly.

Do you have people in your life who are hard to love due to political affiliation?

How do you handle it?

Have you read Green and Jenkins’ book As Good As She Imagined?

The Wonders of His Love

Stan Jantz — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 09:47:24 -0800

There is a reason we call this the most wonderful day of the year: Christmas is truly filled with wonder. Or at least it should be. Somehow over the course of 2,000 years our wonder has become somewhat diluted, if not downright negative.

We consider the miracle of the incarnation--God taking on human form--and we pose a question we might ask of an illusionist: "I wonder how he did that?" Or worse, our wonder is more like doubt, mainly because we buy into the notion--on a practical level, at least--that Jesus was a wise teacher and a social justice advocate, but hardly the supernatural being Scripture makes Him out to be.

Neither of these senses of wonder--speculation or doubt--is anywhere near the wonder that Jesus should incite in us. We should be ashamed when we settle for a pedestrian kind of wonder. Our wonder at Jesus and the day He was born should rise far above our normal human emotions to the place where we are literally frightened at the very idea that the most holy God has identified with us in such a personal, self-sacrificial way.

Whenever the word wonder, or wonders, or wonderful is used in Scripture, it refers to the supernatural. "And His name shall be called wonderful" is no sweet prophecy. Isaiah was foretelling a miracle far beyond human comprehension. When David wrote, "Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done," he was pointing to things too high for the human mind to conceive.

When youi look at wonder in this way, it changes the meaning of the phrases we so flippantly use, especialy today, on Christmas. When we sing of "the wonders of His love," we should think, not of ordinary love, but of a love so incomprehensible so inconceivable, so earth-shattering and humanity-invading, that our knees should buckle at the thought.

I'm afraid in our desire to fit God into our busy lives, to work Him into our story rather than joining the miraculous adventure of His story, we have forgotten the wonder of our God and Savior, who loved us so much that He gave us His only Son, so that our relationship with Him could be restored...forever.

Now that's a wonderful thought!

The Anticlimacy of Christmas

Chris Tomlinson — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:30:45 -0800

Something’s wrong with me. I’m already feeling like Christmas is anticlimactic, and it’s not even Christmas yet. (And I’m making up words like anticlimacy). Most people reserve melancholy for after the fact, but not me. I like to get a jump on these sorts of things.

I suppose I’m just getting to the point in my life where the years have piled up enough to notice some things that are always true. And for me, I always find the day after Christmas to be a bit of a letdown. I don’t even put all that much stock in the trappings of Christmas, but there are at least 5 things I love about Christmas, and the truth is, they never pay off. Even the good things don’t pay off.

It’s not the things themselves. We can say they are morally neutral. Or we can say they are gifts from God to be enjoyed, if enjoyed in the right way. And both are probably true. No, the issue is my own heart.

As I consider why this might be so, two things come to mind. First, I have unfair expectations. And second, my expectations are misplaced.

I say unfair because the good things of the Christmas season can never truly satisfy whatever it is that I, and probably you as well, are looking for. We desire a sense of peace, and comfort, and togetherness, and love, and acceptance, and joy—and a season like Christmas seems like it might just do the trick. But as happy as this season may be for some (and for others, it’s not happy at all), it never delivers what we think it promises.

I say misplaced for a similar reason. If Christmas can’t deliver what I’m looking for, then something must be able to do so. Lewis picked up on this: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.” And while he’s right, I would add to this that we were not only made for another world, but for the Person who is the chief reason for this other world.

At the end of the day, the way to avoid the inevitable letdown is to see all the good things of Christmas as the vapors that they are—and to see the One great think of Christmas as the rock that He is. Life is a vapor, and all things exist for Jesus, so enjoy the good things of Christmas, knowing they are passing away, and cling to the Rock who will never be moved.

The Christmas Word Game

Chris Tomlinson — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:06:32 -0800

The English have the 12 days of Christmas in song. The high churches have the 24 (ish) days of advent. At Crave Something More, and here at Conversant Life, I’ll be writing a series called the “21 Days of CSM Christmas.” Starting December 5 and finishing on Christmas Day, I will write once a day about all things Christmas, in the hopes that we will all continue to see Jesus as the greatest satisfaction to our soul’s deepest cravings.

Day 5: The Christmas Word Game

What words or images do you associate with the Christmas story? Let’s make a list (here’s mine, in order, off the top of my head):

Bright star.

Dark blue sky.

Cool evening.

Angels in song.

Hay.

Shepherds.

Sheep.

Shepherd stick (staff, right, the crooked one?).

Dark streets in town.

Mary on a donkey (was she on a donkey?).

Wreath (??).

Cows.

Mary in blue with a white sash.

Joseph in the dark (kinda obscured).

Manger.

Baby Jesus (but just because I’ve felt guilty for not including Him so far).

So this is craziness. I suspect much of my Christmas imagery comes from some movie I’ve seen or a sprawling imagination. Some of these things aren't in the Biblical accounts, and I'm not sure how the wreath made it into my mind. But I do find it telling that the words I associate with Christmas do not quickly bring up the one Word the whole story is about.

John tells us beautifully: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Question: What words do you think of when you imagine the Christmas story?

For the rest of the 21 Days of Crave Something More Christmas, go here.

The Sacred Conspiracy of Christmas

Chris Tomlinson — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 06:15:42 -0800

Day 4: The Sacred Conspiracy of Christmas

Let’s be conspiracy theorists for a moment. Say you are a guy (let’s call you Joseph), and you’re engaged to this sweet hometown girl (let’s call her Mary), and you have watched this girl for years and years and have finally mustered up the courage to ask her to be your wife. And then she goes to visit relatives for a few months, and she comes back pregos, and you’re wondering what you should do.

The law gives you the right to have her killed, but you are a just man, and you love this girl, and she swears she has broken no law, so you resolve to break the engagement quietly. But then an angel comes to you and tells you that the conceived child belongs to no man, but to God, through the work of His Holy Spirit.

Now let’s say you start to get this devious plan in your mind. You remember your teacher telling you that there was this Coming One, the Messiah who would restore Israel to its former glory, and that this Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, because the prophet Micah foretold it. And you also remember a story about the coming one being born of a virgin, because the prophet Isaiah foretold it. And you have watched foreign occupiers suck the life out of your village and your people, and you want to see your nation restored. More than that, you want power yourself.

So you come up with this plan to take advantage of Mary’s situation, and your family happens to be from Bethlehem, so when Caesar issues a decree that everyone should return to their hometown for the census, you see this is your chance. You can work the situation into fulfilling a couple of prophecies by going to Bethlehem and having Mary deliver this child there. And then you could start telling people that your son is the long awaited Messiah! And then you’d coach your son into fulfilling other prophecies, and as he rose to power, you’d rise along with him.

You could do all of that right? I mean, it would be really strange, and you’d be a megalomaniac, and it’d be a super long shot, but it’s possible, right?

Clearly, Joseph and Mary do no such thing. They probably had no idea that any of these prophecies were actually being fulfilled—they were likely just dealing with the really difficult situation they found themselves in. But what strikes me most in this story is the impossibility of any power-hungry man fulfilling Micah’s prophecy himself. You can maybe ride into Jerusalem on a donkey because Zechariah said the king would come into the city in this way, but you can’t control your birth. You can’t, as a child in the womb, control where your mom and dad go to deliver you (or control that pesky star).

Unless, of course, you’re God. And this is the wonder of Christmas. When Micah, facing the prospect of siege, spoke hope into the crumbling heart of Israel, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from ancient of days,” it meant that the deliverance of Israel was going to be of God.

This is why Christmas was God’s doing. It was the sacred conspiracy, a plan formulated in secret before the ages began, and not one of evil (as conspiracies are), but one of holy origins. Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem, and He would be a ruler in Israel who would “shepherd his flock” of God’s people, and He would be “their peace”, all because God planned it long ago and promised it through His prophet, Micah.

Let us wonder at the delight God has in taking small things (Bethlehem, a manger, a baby; us) and making great things from them (a Messiah who would shepherd His people and be their peace; a redeemed people who are conformed into the image of God’s Son). Let us realize that Christmas was promised long ago, in the midst of great trial, by a God who has our good in mind, and loves to use the weak in this world to shame the strong. And let us feel the love God has for us in this promised Messiah, a love that was made clear some 33 years after that miraculous birth, and a love that gives the substance to our Christmastime today.

For the rest of the 21 Days of Crave Something More Christmas, go here.

Does the Bible bore you?

Christianity 101 — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:04:58 -0800

The Bible is the most remarkable book ever written, read by more people than any other book by a mile, and yet if you're completely honest, you'd have to admit that at times the Bible bores you. We'll admit it. There are times when we read the Bible out of obligation rather than from a heart of expectation. Why is that? Why do we sometimes get bored when we read the Bible?

We've thought about this and have a theory. See what you think. Our theory starts with the fact that we humans are a self-centered bunch. We're always looking for our own best interests, doing things that make us feel better, and basically orienting everything we do around us, including the Bible. Even as followers of Christ, we live as if we're the center of the universe, and so the Bible becomes just one more thing to add to our lives, like a self-help book.

But God is the center of the universe, not us, and the Bible is His personal message to us. By reading it, we can find out what God has said throughout history and what He is saying to us right now so we can orient our lives--our habits, behaviors, morality, and our beliefs--around the Bible.

Approaching the Bible this way does have a downside. It puts you in direct conflict with the story of the world. You see, the story of the Bible features an immortal, immaterial, eternal, and perfectly just and holy God who has reached out to a fallen humanity through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

By contrast, the story of the world is self-focused and human centered. Meaning and fulfillment is found in individal effort and achievement. Salvation isn't needed because we aren't that bad off. The meaning of life hinges on the meaning you bringto it through your own deeds.

Because this way of thinking has so permeated the mindset of humanity, including many Christians, our default setting is to bring all of our interests, passions, and skills to our relationship with God and our reading of the Bible. We are so caught up in what we want to achieve and become that we hope God will bless what we are doing. But again, this is backward. Mike Erre explains the right way of approaching our relationship with God:

We exist to discover how to get on board with God's program, not the other way around. your life will never be a success if you spend all of your time and energy trying to figure out how Christianity can help you (Why the Bible Matters, 133).

If you have found the Bible to be boring and irrelevant to your life, it's likely that you have been trying to fit the grand story of the Bible into your own world. Don't get us wrong. Your world is meaningful and important, and it's important to God. But rather than wondering why God doesn't pay more attention to you, try taking on the attitude of King David, who had every reason to brag about his accomplishments, but instead saw himself correctly in comparison to the great creator God.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is humankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? (Psalm 8:3-4).

Just as the universe is not about you, the Bible is not about you. The Bible is about God. But it was written by God for you, that you may understand who God is, believe that He wants to have a relationship with you, and trust Him with your life--both now and forever.

There's nothing boring about that. Just the opposite. When you fit your story into God's story, the Bible can become the most interesting, fascinating, utterly fulfilling book you can ever read. Ever.

The Sign of Christmas

Chris Tomlinson — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 08:42:08 -0800

The English have the 12 days of Christmas in song. The high churches have the 24 (ish) days of advent. At Crave Something More and here at Conversant Life, I’ll be writing a series called the “21 Days of CSM Christmas.” Starting December 5 and finishing on Christmas Day, I will write once a day about all things Christmas, in the hopes that we will all continue to see Jesus as the greatest satisfaction to our soul’s deepest cravings.

Day 3: The Sign of Christmas

If you had to pick just one symbol or sign for Christmas, what would it be? If Google Images is of any help, then Christmas is symbolized by the Christmas tree, or bells, or snow fall against a lit home, or Santa, or ornaments, or gifts, or candy canes, or Homer Simpson on a rooftop in a Santa costume.

But God’s sign was much simpler than all of this. God’s sign was a baby.

“Ask a sign of the LORD your God,” the Lord said to King Ahaz of Judah, “let it be deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.” Ahaz was facing a great threat when he heard this from the Lord. Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the king of Israel were at the foothills of Jerusalem, readying an attack. And the hearts of Ahaz and his people “shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.” There was no steadiness of heart; there was no resolve. There was only the unsettling fear that blew gusts of dread among the people.

So the Lord sent Isaiah to calm Ahaz and his people: “Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint…It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass…If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.”

Ahaz’s faith must not have been firm, because this is where the Lord came to Ahaz to tell him to ask for a sign—an impossible sign! How deep is Sheol? There is no depth to speak of. How high is heaven? There is no height to measure. God was basically saying this: My word will stand, Ahaz. What I have promised, I will bring about. I will deliver My people. In fact, you can ask anything you can think of as a sign to prove it—anything at all. Because I have power and control over all things.

And when Ahaz refused God’s offer, saying “I will not put the Lord to the test,” God promised a sign anyway. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (which means, “God is with us”).” This is a strange sign to be sure. I’m not sure how Ahaz would have felt at hearing this sign. Great, who is the virgin? Is she conceiving soon, because those two armies are still encamped against us?

But God’s story was greater than Ahaz’s story, just as God’s story is greater than our own. And God’s sign was the impossible sign. Virgin’s don’t conceive and bear sons. No one would think to ask for a sign like this. But all things are possible with God. And wrapped up in this sign, for Ahaz and for us, is the promise of God for deliverance, the promise for salvation from our enemies, the promise that God has our good in mind.

Jesus is this sign. He is this promise. He is our deliverance from sin, and our salvation from Satan’s grasps, and our promise of God’s goodness to us. So when we see the symbols of Christmas in our homes and on our streets and in the public squares this month, let us see through them to the impossible sign that God promised, the glory of a helpless baby who would be our great Deliverer.

For the rest of the 21 Days of Crave Something More Christmas, go here.

5 Questions for Tullian Tchividjian

Guest Voices — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:45:58 -0800

William Graham Tullian Tchividjian is the Senior Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. A Florida native, he is a visiting professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary and a grandson of Billy Graham. Tullian was the founding pastor of the former New City Church, which merged with Coral Ridge in April of 2009. Jesus + Nothing = Everything (Crossway 2011) is his first book since his devastating year of losing his father and being called for a congregational vote of confidence at Coral Ridge.

Sometimes you have to go through hard times to discover what, or who, you are anchored to. Sounds like this is what this book came out of.

God has helped me rediscover the power of the gospel in the cricible of excruciating pain. Late in 2008, discussions began about the merger of the church I founded, New City Church in Ft. Lauderdale, with Coral Ridge Presbyterian, a church my family had attended for part of my chilhood. When January 2009 came around, the public announcement was made about the potential merger, a plan that would install me as senior pastor of the new combined church. In the weeks ahead, there were plenty of people inside and outside both churches who wondered whether such a merger could ever really succeed. Blogs were posted, notes and letters were circulated with false accusations about me. Battle lines were drawn, rumors, raced, and the spirits of those who supported me sagged. I was being challenged by God to more fully understand exactly what I already had in Christ. For far longer than I recognized, I had been depending on the endorsement of others to validate me--to make me feel that I mattered. God began rescuing me from that slavery by forcing me to redicsover the gospel.

You admit that you are "addicted" to the gospel. What does that mean?

It burns inside of me. And it seems to get hotter every day. I can't stop thinking about it, talking about it, writing about it, reading about it, wrestling with it, reveling in it, standing on it, and thanking God for it. For better of for worse, my focus has become myopic. Lesser things don't distract me as easily. What others think of me (either good or bad) doesn't matter as much as it used to. I'm enjoying life more. The pressure is off. I'm beginning to realize that the gospel is way more radical, offensive, liberating, shocking, and counterintuitive than any of us realize. And that's beginning to be okay with me.

What drew you to the book of Colossians, which your book is based on?

On our first morning away on vacation in June 2009, I woke up still saturated with the misery that had been intensifying for so many weeks. I opened up my Bible; in the reading plan I was following, it so happened that the day's passages included the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians. As I read those verses my eyes were opened. God's Holy Spirit helped me see the incredible sufficiency of Christ and the gospel. I could see it with greater clarity and deeper personal application than I'd ever experienced. I sensed my miserable chains falling away. My true situation came into focus. I'd never realized before how dependent I'd become on human approval and acceptance until so much of it was taken away. Before, in every church I'd been a part of, I was widely accepted and approved and appreciated. I'd always felt loved in church. Now, for the first time, I found myself in the uncomfortable position of being deeply disliked and distrusted, and by more than a few people. Now I realized just how much I'd been relying on something other than--something more than--the approval and acceptance and love that were already mine in Jesus.

What do you believe was Paul's goal in writing the book of Colossians?

Paul knew that the diminishing of Christ, this depreciation of God's Son, was the most dangerous and destructive heresy the Colossian believers could possibly encounter. So he wrote them this epistle to show the superiority of Christ over all human philosophies and traditions, all human opinions and preferences and personalities and accomplishments. It was a superiority so overwhelming, so vastly devastating, so infinite.

So you came up with the simple equation, Jesus + Nothing = Everything.

Yes. God had stripped me down--wrecked me afresh! And when he does that to a person--when you actually feel like you have nothing--Jesus becomes more to you than you ever could have hoped or imagined. That June morning was when Jesus plus nothing equals everything--the gospel--became for me more than a theological passion, more than a cognitive catch-phrase. It became my functional lifeline. Rediscovering the gospel enabled me to see: that because Jesus was strong for me, I was free to be weak; because Jesus won for me, I was free to lose; because Jesus was someone, I was free to be no one; because Jesus was extraordinary, I was free to be ordinary; because Jesus succeeded for me, I was free to fail. This began to define my life anew in bright and liberating ways.

America and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

Caroline Ferdinandsen — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:20:38 -0800

It’s no secret that journalism thrives on nasty bacteria more than life-giving oxygen. But this week’s relentless coverage of Very Bad People is making me want to wash my hands every five minutes.

Kim Kardashian’s faux-marriage reminds me that, at least in Celebrity-America, marriage equals marketing. Justin Bieber and Herman Cain, whom I would never place in the same sentence at any other time in history, both face sordid charges of power-groping. Conrad Murray (Michael Jackson’s unprincipled physician and convict-of-the-week) showed us all that the Hippocratic Oath means about as much as Kardashian’s Oath. And finally, the entire Penn State football program appears ready to implode over horrific charges of a pedophilia cover-up.

Just when I’m about to take up drinking, I realize that these are only the national stories. My hometown (and yours) has little celebrity symbolism but all of the same stories: the trivialization of marriage, the misuse of power, the abuse of innocent children. The two-dimensional news stories have real people behind them--people whose sins infect the entire world.

How does a follower of Jesus Christ find light and hope in the midst of such sorrow?

My answer is so surprisingly simple that you might never want to read another of my essays again. It’s an antidote to darkness so effective that we miss it entirely. It’s a push-back that keeps me from losing my freaking mind in the middle of all the teeth-gnashing. It’s the cheesiest answer on the planet.

What’s the answer?

Love.

No way, you might say. Love sounds too easy, too obvious, too wussy. You’d rather I call for righteous anger and butt-kicking justice. You’d rather I rally everyone to political anger or legislative action or vague national outrage. You might rather I drop hate into internet comment threads and let the infection spread. But I will suggest that none of these have ever changed a heart or healed a victim.

I am encouraged by the mind-bending truth of my Bible: And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:14) Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins (I Peter 4:8) This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. (I John 3:16) Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth (I John 3:18) Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (I John 4:8)

What does love look like for me today? First of all, vague Christian love will not counteract vague national outrage. Love takes care of a community’s children and supports lifelong marriages in daily, relentless consistency. It works its way into small conversations about God and man. It resists corruption by following the principles of Jesus Christ at our jobs and in our churches. You and I are the million news stories that are made of flesh and blood, the bigger story that contradicts America’s ugly front page.

When I write, I like to be smart and current and edgy. I like to make people think of things they haven’t considered before. But today, in the middle of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week, I have nothing clever to say, nothing rhetorical that can heal a marriage or restore a life. I can only offer what Jesus Christ tells me is the single most important antidote to sin and hopelessness.

For every life-sapping, spirit-draining thing you read this week, push back with Jesus Christ’s love. Meditate on it. Dwell on the hope of salvation. Tell your children that Jesus’ love is more powerful than man’s despair.

Salacious journalism might seem to have the edge, but children of God can spread a viral hope faster than any news story. That said, I think I’m ready for my Wonderful, Beautiful, All Good, Very-God Day.