To some, the image of a pale body glimmering on a dark night whispers of defeat. What good is a God who does not control his Son's suffering? But another sound can be heard: the shout of a God crying out to human beings, "I LOVE YOU." Love was compressed for all history in that lonely figure on the cross, who said that he could call down angels at any moment on a rescue mission, but chose not to - because of us. At Calvary, God accepted his own unbreakable terms of justice. Any discussion of how pain and suffering fit into God's scheme ultimately leads back to the cross.

We're concerned with how things turn out; God seems more concerned with how we turn out.

... we need to reclaim the "goodnewness" of the gospel, and the best place to start is to rediscover the good news ourselves.

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

If my activism, however well-motivated, drives out love, then I have misunderstood Jesus’ gospel. I am stuck with law, not the gospel of grace.

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

Prayer is to the skeptic a delusion, a waste of time. To the believer it represents perhaps the most important use of time.