A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she acquires an appetite for the world of grace.

Neither the adventure of goodness nor the pursuit of righteousness gets headlines.

This kingdom of God life is not a matter of waking up each morning with a list of chores or an agenda to be tended to, left on our bedside table by the Holy Spirit for us while we slept. We wake up already immersed in a large story of creation and covenant, of Israel and Jesus, the story of Jesus and the stories that Jesus told. We let ourselves be formed by these formative stories, and especially as we listen to the stories that Jesus tells, get a feel for the way he does it, the way he talks, the way he treats people, the Jesus way.

If you keep the Sabbath, you start to see creation not as somewhere to get away from your ordinary life, but a place to frame an attentiveness to your life.

There are no experts in the company of Jesus. We are all beginners, necessarily followers, because we don’t know where we are going.

If we get our information from the biblical material there is no doubt that the Christian life is a dancing, leaping, daring life.

I believe God takes the things in our lives - family, background, education - and uses them as part of his calling. It might not be to become a pastor. But I don't think God wastes anything.