Humanity can be pretty stinky.

I can't help but note that God is being useful to a lot of people trying to do harm to one another.

I became so attentive to the souls of other people that I was not as attentive as I might have been to my own.

The church grew, and I gained a reputation for preaching, and people came, and it was a wonderful community. But we had a building that seated 82 people, and with a congregation then approaching 400 we were up to four services on Sunday, and everyone was tired.

As hard as I have tried to remember the exact moment when I fell in love with God, I cannot do it. My earliest memories are bathed in a kind of golden light that seemed to embrace me as surely as my mother's arms. The divine presence was strongest outdoors, and most palpable when I was alone.

The problem is, many of the people in need of saving are in churches, and at least part of what they need saving from is the idea that God sees the world the same way they do.

If God is about putting God ahead of myself then I've just quit being religious, because that's what got me into such deep trouble.