Take the Long View
Christians should live as those who have already won. The future is a settled matter.
If my regard for myself is founded solely on the value accorded to me by the love of God, then I will love others on the basis of the very same value accorded to them by the love of God.
Lent reveals all the human possibilities of participating in the divine nature, whereby we may escape the corruption that is in the world and live extravagantly generous lives in the embrace of holy love.
Ash Wednesday opens the doorway to descent, the place where the truth of our mortality is met with the promise of eternity.
In the Kingdom of God we find the miraculous place where the more we are known the more we are loved.
As we give ourselves to following Jesus, he blesses us extravagantly, though he allows us to experience situations, struggles, and hardships that will push us beyond mere belief into real faith.
We don’t combat the irrationality of fear with the reasonableness of faith. Faith is not reasonable, and therein lies its power.
It’s not the great sinners who are in the most danger, is it? It’s the ones who seem on the outside to be the most righteous.
Jesus naturalizes divine love as a fully human expression. This is how he wants us to be with each other, and particularly the broken and hurting among us.
Jesus is looking for a quality of faith that is simultaneously humble and bold, and he doesn’t care where he finds it.