Freedom is not the permission to do what you like. It's the power to do what you ought.

The story of Christian reformation, revival, and renaissance underscores that the darkest hour is often just before the dawn, so we should always be people of hope and prayer, not gloom and defeatism. God the Holy Spirit can turn the situation around in five minutes.

Idolatry is huge in the Bible, dominant in our personal lives, and irrelevant in our mistaken estimations

We may be in the dark about what God is *doing*, but we are not in the dark about God.

This is also why it is wrong to treat God as a grand employment agency, a celestial executive searcher to find perfect fits for our perfect gifts. The truth is not that God is finding a place for our gifts but that God has created us and our gifts for a place of his choosing – and we will only be ourselves when we are finally there.

Christ is the only way to God, but there are as many ways to Christ as there are people who come to Him.

We betray our modern arrogance and forget the place of mystery in God's dealing with us.