humility is beyond our reach. if it were a product of reaching, we would instinctively be proud of reaching it. it is a gift.

And in these last hours, the lifetime of this year passes before my eyes, and I face the inevitable question: Did I live it well? Will Jesus Christ, the righteous judge, say “Well done, good and faithful servant”?

We can be content with simplicity because the deepest most satisfying delights God gives us through creation are free gifts from nature and from loving relationships with people. After your basic needs are met, accumulated money begins to diminish your capacity for these pleasures rather than increase them. Buying things contributes absolutely nothing to the heart's capacity for joy.

People don't enjoy salt. They enjoy what is salted. We are the salt of the earth. We do not exist for ourselves.

Do you feel loved by God because you believe he makes much of you, or because you believe he frees you and empowers you to enjoy making much of him?

I recall hearing one of my professors in seminary say that one of the best tests of a person's theology was the effect it has on one's prayers.

Being infinite, God is inexhaustibly interesting. It is therefore impossible that God be boring.