When we depend on anything smaller than God to provide us with the security, significance, meaning, and value that we long for, God will love us enough to take it away. Much of our anger and bitterness, therefore, is God prying open our hands and taking away something we've held onto more tightly than him.

When I was 25, I believed I could change the world. At 41, I have come to the realization that I cannot change my wife, my church, or my kids, to say nothing of the world. Try as I might, I have not been able to manufacture outcomes the way I thought I could, either in my own life or other people's.

While our sin reaches far, God's grace reaches farther. God came after us not to strip away our freedom but to strip away our slavery to self, that we could become truly free.

There is no better news than that the God who makes the demand for perfection also meets the demand for perfection on our behalf.

An identity based in the one-way love of God does not take into account public opinion or, thankfully, even personal opinion.

The people who have taught me the most about grace are those who have blown it so bad that they know how much they need it.

Whatever we may mean by 'Christian growth,' it is ultimately this: less faith in me, more faith in God.