When someone sets out to be controversial or provocative or shocking as an end in itself, I don't think that's a noble goal.

Christian' makes a poor adjective

Many of the most significant moments in our lives come not because it all went right but because it all fell apart

Some communities don't permit open, honest inquiry about the things that matter most. Lots of people have voiced a concern, expressed a doubt, or raised a question, only to be told by their family, church, friends, or tribe: "We don't discuss those things here." I believe the discussion itself is divine. Abraham does his best to bargain with God, most of the book of Job consists of arguments by Job and his friends about the deepest questions of human suffering, God is practically on trial in the book of Lamentations, and Jesus responds to almost every question he's asked with...a question.

If your faith is threatened by something that's true, then it wasn't much of a faith to begin with, was it?

It often appears that those who talk the most about going to heaven when you die talk the least about bringing heaven to earth right now, as Jesus taught us to pray: 'Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' At the same time, it often appears that those who talk the most about relieving suffering now talk the least about heaven when we die.

It is such a letdown to rise from the dead and have your friends not recognize you.