At the heart of the gospel is a God who deliberately surrenders to the wild, irresistable power of love.

When I pray for another person, I am praying for God to open my eyes so that I can see that person as God does, and then enter into the stream of love that God already directs toward that person.

I have learned that faith means trusting in advance what will make sense only in reverse.

Yet as I read the birth stories about Jesus I cannot help but conclude that though the world may be tilted toward the rich and powerful, God is tilted toward the underdog.

In a nutshell, the Bible from Genesis 3 to Revelation 22 tells the story of a God reckless with desire to get his family back.

Grace, like water, flows to the lowest part.

The proof of spiritual maturity is not how pure you are but awareness of your impurity. That very awareness opens the door to grace.

Any discussion of how pain and suffering fit into God's scheme ultimately leads back to the cross.

No one ever converted to Christianity because they lost the argument.

In the stories of extravagant grace given to us by Jesus, there are no loopholes disqualifying us from God's love.

I doubt God keeps track of how many arguments we win; God may indeed keep track of how well we love.

No, love, in real life you can get all the way to death and never have finished one single story.

What we did, what every president since Washington has done, was provide a measured, appropriate response, in direct relation to a realistic threat assessment.

So we can be filled with holes and loss and wide expanses of unhealed geography - and we can also be excited by life and in love and content at the exact same moment.

Creativity is an import-export business.

I think you need to do something new to keep reinventing yourself.

I love blogging, even though apparently it's still dying, and hate it when I have too much going on to do so regularly.

If you're prosperous in soul, you'll be prosperous in whole, regardless of how many and how much physical possessions you have

I think all art is about control, the encounter between control and uncontrollable.

I never even watched football growing up. I just play the game.

Comets importing change of times and states, Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky And with them scourge the bad revolting stars.