In deep pain, people don't need logic, advice, encouragement, or even Scripture. They just need you to show up and shut up.

That's one of those questions I'm asked more often than anything else. Will my dog go to heaven? And I say well, the lion will lay down with the lamb.

Building friendships with people from dissimilar backgrounds and diverse perspectives will make you wiser and more creative.

You will be tempted by the need to feed yourself.

Most of us want to have enough... good works to get into heaven, but enough bad works to be fun.

Fellowship is a place of grace, where mistakes aren't rubbed in but rubbed out. Fellowship happens when mercy wins over justice.

My first reaction in pastoral care is not to explain. And again, I don't think the primary purpose of the Bible is to explain suffering. I never have, because the actual explanations are often inadequate. I think the primary purpose of Scripture is to say I am all you need in this suffering and I need comfort.