Posts with the tag “reconciliation”

There is a kind of offense that screams, and there is a kind that whispers. The loud ones are easier to spot. But the quiet ones—they sit next to us. They send kind emails with barbed undertones. They lead ministries while nursing private judgments. They say, “I’m fine,” while keeping a record of every perceived slight.   Read More

The words of Jesus in Luke 15 are scandalous in their simplicity: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine... and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4, ESV). He does not wait for the sheep to wander back. He does not sit in the safety of the flock and mourn the one who left. He goes after it.  Read More

The church likes its heroes tidy. We like our narratives linear. We prefer Paul the trailblazer, Barnabas the encourager, Mark the gospel-writer. But when they collide—when a young man deserts his calling, when two apostles can no longer walk together, when the mission itself gets divided—we squint and shift and move quickly along.  Read More

They are quiet, these two. Assumption and her sister Presumption move quickly, feeding on half-truths, imagined offenses, and misheard words. They do not announce themselves with loud accusations or wild gestures. They simply slide into the spaces left unspoken, filling the voids with whispered falsehoods, twisting shadows into supposed truths.   Read More