I am learning that a critical key to spiritual growth is the realization that your sin is worse than you imagine and that God’s grace is greater than you imagine.  

One implication of the Son of God being born as one of us is that the fullness of God was present in the undeveloped state of a baby, which further means that the fullness of God can be present in all those places where we remain undeveloped. ******* “For that which He has not assumed […]

The purpose of grace is to not make you better but to make you His. A person who is a wretch but who rushes to meet God in his wretchedness is far better than a “righteous” person who manages well enough without God. We were made for intimacy, not for righteousness. Righteousness matters, but as the […]

A common definition of sin is “missing the mark.” Generally speaking when us religious types talk about sin what we have in mind is falling short (“missing the mark”) regarding a moral standard. In essence, sin is viewed as a moral transgression. Though I acknowledge the validity of all this regarding the nature of sin, […]

While I have this moment of clarity, I thought I would proclaim that the Cross subverts all systems by which humanity attempts to secure divine favor, or bring peace and order to the world. This is an assertion that is particularly directed to religious types such as myself. The Cross subverts human systems, particularly religious […]

The following is a bit of meta-exegesis, which is to say that instead of providing and explanation of a religious text (exegesis), I am providing a commentary on another person’s explanation of a religious text. Although, what I offer is not so much a commentary but rather me wrestling with and processing another person’s exegesis. […]

It is the fifth day of Christmas and I’ve been reading Brennan Manning’s The Ragamuffin Gospel, which inspired me to write the following riff about the vulnerability of God, a vulnerability manifested in the Cross. ******* There is a deep connection between the brutal marks engraved on the vulnerable and naked body of the Son […]

This is grace: to know that God stubbornly embraces you even though your heart pulses with the power to personally drive and twist the nails further into the body of the one who hung to bless you.

Sometimes I am stabbed by a notion of grace that at once utterly undermines the fallen instincts of all secular ideologies and all religious striving and yet completely upholds genuine human integrity and completely defines and fulfills our deepest desire for freedom and love. When I am confronted by this grace I am astonished by […]