I think preparing food and feeding people brings nourishment not only to our bodies but to our spirits. Feeding people is a way of loving them, in the same way that feeding ourselves is a way of honoring our own createdness and fragility.

That's why it's hard, I think, to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. I love that line from the Bible, but it's so incredibly difficult sometimes, because when you've got reason to rejoice, you forget what it's like to mourn, even if you swear you never will. And because when you're mourning, the fact that someone close to you is rejoicing seems like a personal affront.

In many cases, change is not a function of life's cruelty but instead a function of God's graciousness.

The grandest seduction of all is the myth that DOING EVERYTHING BETTER gets us where we want to be. It gets us somewhere, certainly, but not anywhere worth being

Sometimes the happiest ending isn't the one you keep longing for, but something you absolutely cannot see from where you are

Somebody is looking at you - and someone needs to see you walk this journey of following God's calling.

Friendship is an opportunity to act on God's behalf in the lives of the people that we're close to, reminding each other who God is.