"Self-giving love has never been about getting walked over. It necessarily involves agency. It includes willingly laying your life down for you enemies and turning over tables on behalf of the lowly...."

If you’re ever worried about whether or not you ‘abide’ in the ‘vine,’ don’t forget: the imperative is rooted in the indicative. We can ‘abide in God’ because we ‘have already been cleansed."

"...and even when you don’t, remember that God leaves vineyards for prodigals.”

...The more I tell myself the story that I’m better than other people, more evolved than other people, more on the right side of history than other people, a distance grows not just between me and those people but between me and God...