Grace flows most refreshingly through the faucet of brokenness.

Our default faith mode is to trust, above all things, our own ability to create a safe, controllable, predictable world.

My job is not to show my children that I'm the man, but to show them that Christ is the man.

You are not obligated to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and find a way to conquer the odds, to be stronger or transform yourself into some better version of yourself. The pain you are feeling (whatever the degree) may be a reminder that things are not as they should be.

Because the church has moved away from the gospel anytime you move away from the gospel, you at the same time move toward pretense, you move toward image-keeping, you move toward the need to pretend.

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.

Don't get me wrong - what we do is important. But it is infinitely less important than what Jesus has done for us.