Christianity is not a purely intellectual, internal faith. It can only be lived in community.

I have yet to find any support in the Bible for an attitude of smugness: Ah, they deserve their punishment; watch them squirm.

Pain narrows vision. The most private of sensations, it forces us to think of ourselves and little else.

One who has been touched by grace will no longer look on those who stray as "those evil people" or "those poor people who need our help." Nor must we search for signs of "loveworthiness." Grace teaches us that God loves because of who God is, not because of who we are.

The point of the Book of Job is not suffering: where is God When It hurts? The prologue (chapters 1-2) dealt with that issue. The point of the Book of Job is faith: Where is Job when it hurts?

Jesus was a master of grace: he attracted sinners and moral outcasts even as he offended the religious and responsible people of his day.

The more we love, and the more unlikely people we love, the more we resemble God - who, after all, loves ornery creatures like us.