A Christian is somebody whose eyes have been opened, who admits that Jesus is not what you expected, but he’s what you need.

Prayer is awe, intimacy, struggle-yet, the way to reality.

It takes pride to be anxious – I am not wise enough to know how my life should go.

The world says you are loved because of what you do. Jesus says you can now do all things because you are loved.

Our moral efforts are too feeble and falsely motivated to ever merit salvation.

But resurrection is not just consolation — it is restoration. We get it all back — the love, the loved ones, the goods, the beauties of this life — but in new, unimaginable degrees of glory and joy and strength.

If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.