I ask God most often that we would be an unbroken line of Christians until Christ shall return.

Some of us seem so anxious about avoiding hell that we forget to celebrate our journey toward heaven.

Whoever desires to remain faithful to Jesus must communicate faith as he did, not by compelling assent but by presenting it as a true answer to basic thirst. Rather than looking back nostalgically on a time when Christians wielded more power, I suggest another approach: that we regard ourselves as subversives operating within the broader culture.

On a small scale, person-to-person, Jesus encountered the kinds of suffering common to all of us. And how did he respond? Avoiding philosophical theories and theological lessons, he reached out with healing and compassion. He forgave sin, healed the afflicted, cast out evil, and even overcame death.

Grace is heartfelt, tinged with love, a spillover gift of the God who extended undeserved favor toward us.

True healing, of deep connective tissue, takes place in community. Where is God when it hurts? Where God's people are.

Prayer unfolds in the stillness of the soul.