What is it to you? This is a question that Jesus asked one of his disciples and it is one of the most important questions, I believe, for all of Jesus’ disciples. Jesus had been challenging Peter to follow him (Jesus) out of love for him (Jesus). Jesus also made

A few weeks ago a gentleman at our church asked me why I spend so much of my time addressing crime in the neighborhood.  It was one of those questions that is so simple to ask, while the answer is so big and has so many layers. For starters, we

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. – 1 John 3:16 I love God because God first loved me I love God because when I was so incredibly lonely and hurting God gave me the most incredible wife, companion, and friend.

In the last post I briefly explained Bernard of Clairvaux’s four degrees of love. I love this model, not just because it expresses how Christians grow in faith and love, but more so how God meets us where we are and leads us toward being more free, alive, and mature

Twelfth century monk, Bernard of Clairvaux developed a helpful model for expressing how Christians (can) mature in their faith – the four degrees of love. Loving yourself for your own sake (Selfish Love) Loving God for your own sake (Dependence Love) Loving God for God’s sake (Intimacy Love) Loving Yourself

In one aspect every one of us are as rich as we want to be. We are rich in worry. No matter what happens in life, no matter how things go up or go down, whether we win or we lose we’ll always have plenty to worry about if we

Other People’s Problems It is the teaching of Jesus and therefore the priority of his followers to “love our neighbors as our selves” and even to “love our enemies” (Mark 12:31 & Matt 5:44). This can become a tricky proposition for Christians in a number of ways. One of the

Christians are people whose ultimate ambition is to embody the life and teachings of Jesus – a high aspiration for sure. The loftiness of this goal means that the Christian life, in this life anyway, will never be about arriving, but about journey and progress. Sometimes along this journey we

A couple of years ago my wife Carrie was driving through our neighborhood with several black teenagers in her minivan – mostly boys I believe. They were all friends of ours and part of our church. As they drove past a patrol car, the officer inside looked at them, pulled

Hardiness In the last post I wrote about the two elements of trust – competence and character. These two are incredibly important things to look for in anyone we are in a relationship with or work with. If I could only have one other quality in the people that I