John 1:14 describes “The Word” (Jesus) as dwelling among us “full of grace and truth.” As a pastor, I hope that I regularly dwell with others as Jesus did, in the fullness of his grace and truth, but I don’t.

Dangers confront us continually in the form of car crashes, heart attacks, divorce, politics, war, or terrorism. Jesus prays, appealing to his Father for our protection, but do we feel safe? We can look to pillars of Christianity and ask the same question.

Most of us think of a “kingdom” as a place. But when Scripture speaks of the “kingdom of God,” it is not speaking of a place... Rather, the “kingdom of God” (or the “kingdom of Heaven”) is a fact, the fact that God is king.

I sit alone in my office after an emotional and heartbreaking conversation with a mother watching her daughter, in the midst of an identity crisis, make decisions that cannot be easily undone. And then, as if I am having deja vu, I am transported to a previous conversation with a father.