forgiving – Page 2 – 300 words a day

The rest of Hope

When you read this, Hope will probably be sleeping. She got home Wednesday from two weeks in the Czech Republic (busylifebychoice). After all the travel, all the people, all the new, all the trusting, Hope will spend most of today sleeping. There is something about the rest you get when you are home, really home. […]

by Jon Swanson

Unless I am wrong

I am acutely aware of expectations, even those that do not exist. I have lived much of my life as a pleaser. To avoid conflict, I have appeased, placated, avoided and feared. And I am increasingly aware of the dangers of living according to the standards and expectations and boundaries of others. “How we used […]

by Paul Merrill

Just do it

Yes, Nike made that phrase popular in 1988 – long enough ago that some will not remember. Others will be so burned out on hearing it that the meaning is lost. But James said in his letter, “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” (That’s chapter […]

by Jon Swanson

I did it.

Sin. It’s what many people think that Christians are about. Including many Christians. Well, not so much that they are about sin, but that they make a big deal about sin, that they go around pointing out sin, that they are particularly skilled at confessing other people’s sins And at some point in the pointing […]

by Jon Swanson

inside and outside

The reason that outside isn’t so bad is that inside isn’t so good. When Jesus said that people who didn’t respond to three distinct, thoughtful, caring challenges to their behavior needed to leave the church, He was intending was that the threat of having to leave the warmth of community in the church would be […]