I'm a follower of the Christ path, and that opens a huge discussion about what we even mean by words like "Christian."

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.

There was no time anymore to be quiet or still or pray. So, in many ways, that's what led to my downward spin.

It does seem to me that at least some of us have made an idol of exhaustion. The only time we know we have done enough is when we are running on empty and when the ones we love most are the ones we see the least.

Every human interaction offers you the chance to make things better or to make things worse.

I live by the simplest, perhaps facile command that Jesus ever gave, which is to love God with the whole self and the neighbor as the self, and I find that's entirely consuming. To do those two things leaves me very little time to do much else.

I love being alone. I learned that from my father, I think, who loved his own company.