The tradition piece is so embedded in me I don't know that I can see it any more, but the community piece is one I've been in danger of losing.

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.

I think we d like life to be like a train..but it turns out to be a sailboat.

Beliefs have become unimportant to me. Faith as radical trust became even more important to me.

I decided I got to say whether I was Christian or not, and so I've relaxed enormously since then. I'm the one who gets to say that, and not someone else.

With so much effort being poured into church growth, so much press being given to the benefits of faith, and so much flexing of religious muscle in the public square, the poor in spirit have no one but Jesus to call them blessed anymore.

The tradition piece is so embedded in me I don't know that I can see it any more, but the community piece is one I've been in danger of losing.