Following worldly practices will never lead to a faithful representation of the Gospel of Christ and the heart of the Father. In that regard, attempts to quantify the spiritual disciplines and the quality of the Christian life follow a secular “wisdom” of the worst kind.

The emphasis on the uniqueness of the human experience is called phenomenology. The phenomenological approach states that your experience and perception of an event are a phenomenon as unique as you.

If we do not start with grace, everything falls apart. Being founded on the rock means the emptying of ourselves, knowing that everything attempt, every failure, everything discussion, and every theological discussion starts with the amazing grace of Christ. Knowing this, we are free to try to live as best as we can without fear of condemnation for our inevitable shortcomings.

Sabbath is a call to rest, and it is a requirement that resist but desperately need.

While accountability and effort are important, we, the Church, cannot discount the power of the gospel of grace and its ability to heal everything that’s broken (including the devastation of addiction).

Intellectualism is often a defense mechanism against the life changing dangers of intimate encounters. Our intellectual pursuits should exist to increase the expense of our encounters with God and others.

The Christian understanding of addiction should always inspire understanding, grace, and compassion; we should not turn a blind eye to those suffering through the captivity of self-inflicted consequences and nor should we condone or enable addictive behaviors—but we should always proceed from grace.

Our inner critic is always vocal and normatively harsh and reductionistic. But, if we can allow for moments of humility, it is possible to hear the voice of a loving God singing His truth over our lives.

The danger of grief is getting lost in the despair and confusion only to discover that healthy grief turned to neurotic depression. But, we can journey through the experience of grief with intentionality and purpose.