To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.

Jesus experienced homelessness at Christmas so that we could experience a love we could never lose.

What you do today is shaped by what you believe about tomorrow.

Suffering can refine us rather than destroy us because God himself walks with us in the fire.

Suffering is the stripping of our hope in finite things, therefore we do not put our ultimate hope in anything finite.

Jesus's miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts, that the world we all want is coming.

We think that idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life.