We're starting a new series for Advent called J-CURVE: Descent of Love. In these conversations we'll look at how love draws Jesus "down" and "in," first in the incarnation and ultimately to the cross. Our material comes from the J-Curve book and new J-Curve Interactive Bible Study, Unit 3.

"Our natural human tendency is to seek out people that think like you. You can bond instantly with them. So how do you join pieces that are different, where we think differently and react differently? The Apostle Paul's answer is you need the mind of Christ. What's his mind? Love shaped by humility. You die to yourself, lose your narrative, leave your sense of who you are… "

"Everybody wants to be unified but the trick is how to get there."

"So what's the mind that keeps up from having the mind of Christ? I would call it the modern therapeutic call to love. It goes something like this, 'I know life has been hard and people have wounded you but god wants us to love one another love is putting the other person first like Jesus did of course that doesn't mean that you should endure in a difficult relationship god won't give you more than you can handle. One way to do that is to make sure that you have clear boundaries.' Every single sentence is good in there, but somehow when you pull it all together, it just kills love."