Prayer is - keeping company with God.

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

Jesus' response to suffering people and to "nobodies" provides a glimpse into the heart of God. God is not the unmoved Absolute, but rather the Loving One who draws near.

The promise of pleasures so alluring that we may devote our lives to their pursuit, and then the haunting realization that these pleasures ultimately do not satisfy.

The shift in American society from admiring Christians to fearing and criticizing them provides an opportunity for self-reflection. How have we been presenting the message we believe in? Might there be a more grace-filled way?

By focusing too myopically on what we want God to do on our behalf, we may miss the significance of what he has already done.

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