Reconciliation is not to be withheld when repentance—that is, deep, heart‐changing acknowledgement of sin and a radical redirection of life—takes place in the one being rebuked. Nor is reconciliation to be extended to someone who has not repented.

Most people want to grow, but the price of growth is pain.

Beginning with the first day of life outside the womb, every child is asking two core questions: 'Am I loved?' and 'Can I get my own way?' These two questions mark us throughout life, and the answers we receive set the course for how we live.

So take seriously the story that God has given you to live. It’s time to read your own life, because your story is the one that could set us all ablaze.

Genuine trust involves allowing another to matter and have an impact in our lives. For that reason, many who hate and do battle with God trust Him more deeply than those whose complacent faith permits an abstract and motionless stance before Him. Those who trust God most are those whose faith permits them to risk wrestling with Him over the deepest questions of life. Good hearts are captured in a divine wrestling match; fearful, doubting hearts stay clear of the mat.

The desire for beauty, the hunger for union, the passion to be part of something greater than self, all arise out of our bent to worship.

The cost for the recipient of God’s grace is nothing, and no price could be higher for arrogant people to pay.