There Are No Scraps of Men

Great talk, and an incredibly worthy idea, by Alberto Cairo, a physiotherapist in Afghanistan.

Paradise

What would your paradise be like?
What paradise are you looking for?

[Advent Conspiracy] Enter the Story 2011

Check out this one!

Radiant Beams?

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a Christmas grinch. I'm a big fan of all the fun, food, festivities, friends, family, and of course the furry man in red. I love Christmas, I really do.

Hopefully I've made that clear. Now, I do have a tiny gripe about a couple of the carols we sing (remember: not a grinch)..

Firstly, Silent Night. Nice song and all, but "radiant beams from thy holy face"? Really? Was baby Jesus like one of those glow worm toys that my daughter has? "Oh look Mary, looks like we don't need those candles after all." Did he somehow play soothing lullaby music too?

And Away in a Manger. "The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.." No crying he makes? Is he some kind of angelic cherub baby? Was Jesus the only baby who never cried? I wonder if people somehow think that even as a baby, Jesus knew all the secrets of the universe. "Oh it's just cows lowing. That is how I designed them after all..." I think if we sang this song to Mary, she would probably say "Tell em they're dreaming."

Jesus was born a human, just like the rest of us, and he would have done the same things as the rest if us. Crying, sleeping, eating, pooing, completely dependant on his mother.. He knew what was involved before he decided to come to earth. He's not opposed to all our humanness. That's how he made us and he loves us for it.

Here's what's really going on in these songs.. Over the years, Christians have at times tried to play down Jesus' humanness, generally alongside a dualistic belief that everything earthy and human is bad, and only the "spiritual" things are good. This is not accurate at all, and it has a far-reaching effect in our thinking about everything else. If everything earthy and human is bad, then the only solution would be to destroy the earth and the human body, and take the good "souls" to some kind of disembodied heaven (which is what many people believe Christianity is all about). While this is a very commonly-held view, it's not a Biblical idea at all. It comes from Greek philosophy actually. Thanks Plato and friends.

The actual Biblical viewpoint is that God LOVES the humanness of humans and the earthiness of the earth. That's how he created it all in the first place. And when Jesus finally reappears to set everything right, it will be to restore the earth to what it was always meant to be: a more incredible earth, married to heaven, like this one but even more so. And he will restore us and our bodies so that we're MORE human than we are now, with less limitations, more alive, more present, more ourself, than we've ever been before. This is only a shadow of our future self. We're practically asleep, compared to how alive we'll be then.

"Joy to the World" hits the nail on the head when it describes all of creation in celebration - the "fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, repeat the sounding joy.." Why would the earth be happy if it was going to be scrapped? It would be more like "Oh crap, it's time. Well, it's all over boys. It's been a nice ride.."

No. The King is here and that means things are going to finally be put RIGHT. Restoration begins. For everything. And so everything celebrates.

Sing the carols at Christmas, celebrate, have fun with friends and family, and remember this: the king is here, and that brings hope for EVERYTHING.

Steal some time this Christmas to contemplate what that means.

Ordinary Mission

"One of our ambitions is to take the idea of gospel ministry as the primary preserve of the professionals and 'give it back' to the masses."
- Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, "Everyday Church"

Amen brother! And here's some more...

"One of the key benefits of everyday mission is that it enfranchises each and every one of us. Everyday mission requires everyday missionaries rather than superheroes of the faith. We need to recapture the sense that gospel ministry is not something done by pastors with the support of ordinary Christians, but something done by ordinary Christians with the support of pastors."

Preach it. I'd definitely recommend reading the rest of this chapter if you can get your hands on the book. Tim and Steve talk about how this can work in everyday life with everyday people. Some really simple practical ways to bring the kingdom of heaven into the lives of the people around us, and ways to grow a church community that does this together.

Someone is welcome to borrow my copy of the book if you like. Just let me know!

"It's not complicated, though, of course, living differently by grace is never easy. God has not equipped us all to be big personalities with multiple gifts or oratory that draws the crowds. But through the death of Christ and the faithful work of the Spirit he has empowered us all to live such good lives that others are drawn to Christ. However you 'do' church, let it be nothing less than the people of God on mission together. We are a city on a hill and a light to the world."

Different

"The church as an alternative community can make a powerful witness when it chooses to live differently from the dominant society at just a few key points. An important task of the church is to discern what are those key points at which to be different from the world."

- Lois Barrett, quoted in "Everyday Church," by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis

The Other Nine

This makes it pretty clear...

"Sunday morning in church is the one place where evangelism cannot take place in our generation because the lost are not there..." - from "Everyday Church," by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis

If you're in a church, what's your church's strategy for evangelism?

Most churches work on the evangelism strategy of "bringing people to us." But the fact is, this may only work for 1 out of 10 Aussies. The other nine won't set foot in a church building no matter how passionate the preaching, how inspiring the music, or how enjoyable the youth or children's program.

If this is something that troubles you as much as it does me, PLEASE start thinking about ways to be a church for the other nine. This is what we're trying to do in our local area.

Maybe you could start some experiments of your own. Maybe you could help your church start trying new ways to connect with the other nine - and not by trying to get them to your Sunday service. Or at the very least, start brainstorming ideas and send anything to me!

We're not going to be amazing at it at the start, but we need to start trying! Please join us if you think 90% of our country is worth it.

What is it all about?

There's one verse in the Bible that's always made me a little worried when I've read it. Well, one particular verse, that is. If I thought about it there would be probably be quite a few worrying moments, but let's not do that now.

The verse is this one...

"And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it." (1 Peter 3:15 NLT)

What is Christianity all about? It's kind of hard to explain for many people, even Christians. What is the gospel? I actually wonder if many Christians might be secretly hoping that nobody ever asks them this question. Maybe they've got some vague ideas - love, peace, something about Jesus? - and maybe they've picked up some other ones that somehow don't quite seem to fit, but if someone asked them to give an explanation...

I think on some level it shouldn't be an easy explanation, because the story and the person we're trying to describe is far more complex and wondrous for feeble human words (one of the reasons one of those 2-minute, 5-step gospel presentations will lead you down the wrong track)... It's like trying to describe a Mozart concert to a friend who didn't make the show ("Well, first the violins played an F, then dropped to an E, then did that again, then I think the clarinets might have done something - Oh it was magic!).

But that certainly doesn't mean there is nothing we can say. It just means we need to stop being lazy and trying to spit out other people's pithy descriptions. If you don't know what to say, put the work in and figure it out.

If you need some help, the best book I've read on the topic is Simply Christian, by Tom Wright. Or find a group of people and discuss it - see if you can come up with something together. Maybe read through one of the gospels together..

If you need somewhere I start, have a look into Jesus' phrase "The Kingdom of Heaven." That's what Jesus himself preached about whenever he spoke. What was he talking about? Or take Peter's verse and figure out what our hope is.

One final clue, just to clear away the most common misdirection: the answer is not "to go to heaven when I die."

For All the Artists

A stirring call for all the artists out there!

"The arts are not the pretty but irrelevant bits around the border of reality. They are the highways into the centre of a reality which cannot be glimpsed, let alone grasped, any other way. The present world is good, but broken and in any case incomplete; art of all kinds enables us to understand that paradox in its many dimensions. But the present world is also designed for something which has not yet happened. It is like a violin waiting to be played: beautiful to look at, graceful to hold, yet if you've never heard one before you would not believe the new dimensions of beauty yet to be revealed. Perhaps art can show something of that, can glimpse the future possibilities pregnant within the present time...."

- Tom Wright, Simply Christian

If you're an artist, musician, songwriter, painter, dancer, chef, interior designer, architect, landscaper... read that again. And again. And again. However many times it takes to get it.

And then get on with it! Dream. Paint that future and help others to dream it too.

Even just dreaming it brings it more fully into the present world. From there, who knows where it might end up?

The Overlap

"We are called to live at the overlap both of heaven and earth - the earth that has yet to be fully redeemed as one day it will be - and of God's future and this world's present. We are caught on a small island near the point where these tectonic plates, heaven and earth, future and present, are scrunching themselves together. Be ready for earthquakes."- Tom Wright, "Simply Christian"

7 Billion

With the population just clicking over to 7 billion, what does that mean? Interesting little video here - well worth checking out.
Also, if you have an iPad, the National Geographic 7 Billion app is free for a short time. I reckon it'd be pretty amazing.

Switchfoot - Restless

Power and Weakness

Read this slowly....

"The power of God, says St Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, is therefore revealed in human weakness, supremely in the weakness of Jesus. At the heart of the Christian gospel stands the ridiculous paradox that true power is found in the apparent failure, and the shameful death, of a young Jew at the hands of a ruthless empire. Why? Because there are more dimensions to reality than just the ones we see and know in our own space and time. Heaven, God's space, is the present but unseen reality. And, in that all-important dimension, the crucifixion was not a defeat but a victory; in the death of Jesus... the powers of evil were themselves being judged, were being put to shame, were being decisively rebuked for their arrogance. Instead, the generous self-giving love of Jesus, giving himself for the sins of the world, has been vindicated and exalted as the supreme principle of the universe. More: Jesus himself, no abstract principle, but a human person, is now exalted as the still loving, still giving, still generous Lord, to whom one day every knee shall bow, and whom we are today summoned to follow."

- from Following Jesus, by N T Wright

Contentment

HLKAW

Here's a quick little exercise that I've found helpful in my life. I call it the hlkaw, which is a word I made up to help me remember it (helps to say it with a Kung Fu-like tone).
Jot down a thought to each of these:
H. A high of the last week
L. A low point
K. A key lesson I'm learning
A. An action point for the next week
W. A warning - something to watch out for
I try to sit down by myself and do this at least once a week, maybe with a coffee. Doesn't have to take long. I've found it useful to keep me on the right track, more aware of what's going on (especially the little joys that can be easily missed) and what God might be doing.

How Great Leaders Inspire Action - Simon Sinek

A Message to Churches

Churches, please stop using your message boards out the front for evangelism. Please. I've seen some shockers lately, and to be honest, I think any time you use that medium (or billboards, for that matter) for "evangelism', you are killing Jesus' message. Like pruning rosebushes with an axe.
Please please stop. For all our sakes.

The Importance of the Ressurection

Here's a talk by Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham, that's very much worth watching if you've got a spare 45 minutes.


Why Does Jesus' Resurrection Matter? Considering Its Relevance for Today Part 1 of 2 from The Veritas Forum on Vimeo.

Marriages of Tension

Just read this very interesting perspective on marriage by the "Orthodox rabbi and relationship expert" Shmuley Boteach. Thanks Mark Sayers for the quote, from his book The Vertical Self.

Marriages should be based not on trust, but on tension. Not on routine, but on raging emotion. Not on respect, but on jealousy. Not on confidence, but suspicion. Sounds crazy, right? But think of it this way: When you trust that your spouse will never be erotically attracted to a stranger and will never be unfaithful, you start taking him or her for granted. Isn't this really the number-one-killer of marriages? Isn't growing bored and "falling out of love" the most lethal of all marital illnesses? Won't a relationship be doomed if a couple is complacent and smug to the point of not having to work at it anymore?

Pleasures

"It isn't the big pleasures that count the most; it's making a great deal out of the little ones."
- Jean Webster

Songwriting, or more accurately, not songwriting

I have a real love-hate relationship with songwriting. I've got a few ideas and choruses in my head, but like everything creative, the first part comes pretty easily, although not always at a convenient time or place (is it dangerous to do voice recordings when you're driving?) - but to turn it into a finished product takes a lot of time. 90% perspiration, don't they say?

Well, hopefully some start coming together. I'll post them so you can have a listen. If I think they're ok that is!

Thoughts from a friend's bathroom wall

Psalm 146:3-9

Don’t put your confidence in powerful people;
      there is no help for you there.
When they breathe their last, they return to the earth,
      and all their plans die with them.
But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,
      whose hope is in the Lord their God.
He made heaven and earth,
      the sea, and everything in them.
      He keeps every promise forever.
He gives justice to the oppressed
      and food to the hungry.
   The Lord frees the prisoners.
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
   The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.
      The Lord loves the godly.
The Lord protects the foreigners [or refugees?] among us.
      He cares for the orphans and widows,
      but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.

Work Computer

Sunsets

The Argyle Sweater

by Scott Hillburn

The Big Q: Heaven

What is one aspect of this world that you would like to see carry on in heaven?

The Christian Religion

Interesting book I've just started reading, by Gregory A. Boyd. It's called The Myth of a Christian Religion, "Losing your religion for the beauty of a revolution."

I picked it up because I listened to an interview with the Greg Boyd a little while ago, where he talked about the book and some of the ideas behind it. If you have a spare moment, definitely listen to the interview, because there were some amazing insights there - about church and Christian culture and what the way of Jesus might look like in our world today. If you do listen to it, make sure you let me know any thoughts, or if anything stood out to you.

Here's a little from the introduction to the book....

"This may surprise or even offend you, but Jesus is not the founder of the Christian religion. True, a religion arose centuries after he lived that was called 'Christian,' but... in many respects this religion was antithetical to what Jesus was about. In fact... the very concept of a 'Christian religion' is something of a myth when understood in the light of what Jesus was about."

Send me your thoughts on that one too!

Between

See if you can figure this one out, by Eugene Peterson....

"In matters of church, nothing of what we see apart from what we see is church. And nothing of what we don't see apart from what we see is church. There is no invisible church. There is no visible church. Invisibility and visibility coinhere in church. There is no church without God, whom 'no man has seen... at any time' (John 1:18 NAS). There is no church without the 'great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all the tribes and people and languages' (Rev. 7:9) that we can see.

"Church is a staging ground for what takes place between  heaven (invisible) and earth (visible)."

- from Practise Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up In Christ

I particularly like that last line. Church is a staging ground for what takes place between heaven and earth. Very nice.

Franciscan Benediction

Extract from Micah Challenge prayers:

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.

The Big Q: Apocalypt Now?

Here's something fun. Each week I'm going to put up a question for you to discuss. Love to hear what you think! Here's the first one....

On a global scale, it's been a devastating start to the year. We've had earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, bush fires, terrible political unrest.. To name a few. A couple of weeks ago the Sunday Mail published an article which stated that churches and ministers are saying these are all signs that the world is going to end soon.

Q. What are your thoughts? Are we in the last days?

(If you're a Christian, don't feel you have to give the stock answer. There are theologians on both sides of it!)

Outlive Your Life

I love the idea behind this book, that we can live our lives in such a way to make a difference beyond our years on earth. "What if we rocked the world with hope?" Max Lucado asks. "Infiltrated all corners with God's love and life?"


I love this perspective, and I think it's a much more worthy way to live than the usual selfish, get-more style chosen by many people (and shouted at us by the advertisers - "Go on. You deserve it...").

Having said this though, something about this book didn't really win me over. I'm not sure exactly how, but the writing seemed somehow a little fake. It's probably just me. I don't usually go for these inspirational types of books.

I know Max Lucado is certainly living what he preaches. He's living his own life to make a difference, especially through his partnership with World Vision.

I'd be interested to hear what other people thought of the book, if you've read it...?

Things I've Learned About Community from Postman Pat

1. Get outside
2. Every problem is everybody's problem - everybody gets involved to help
3. Everyone has different skills - Oh no! Pat's slid down a hill! We need farmer Bob and his tractor! (and the Policeman comes too of course)
4. Children are just as important and needed - "Quick Lucy! Ride to the post office and get farmer Bob! Well done Lucy"
5. Once you've fixed the problem, celebrate together too!
6. Small communities grow better community
7. It takes a village to raise a child - all the adults look after all the kids
8. Enjoy your work, enjoy your community - "Pat thinks he's a really lucky man..."
9. Smile and be friendly to people - "Everybody smiles when he calls to greet them"
10. Deliver things personally - Pat doesn't have to knock on the door or ring the bell, but he does. You get the feeling email doesn't play a huge part in this community

Your Money God's Way

This is the best book on money I've read. Admittedly, that doesn't say a lot, seeing as I've only read probably one other book on the topic. Still, if you're interested in seeing what a Godly, spiritual way of dealing with money might be, Your Money God's Way would be a great place to start.

What I liked about it most was the way it used the Bible. The other book on money that I've read stole quotes from the Bible to back up the author's points (e.g. "You need to tithe, because as it says in Deuteronomy chapter 11 verse..."), but the author of this book, Amie Streater, has got a much better handle on the big ideas that the Bible - and Jesus - are trying to get across. This one has a more practical, real-life feel to it, which I loved.

God cares about real people, and how real people live through the everyday challenges and celebrations of their lives, and this come across wonderfully in the way Amie writes. She's a pastor herself, and you can tell she's spent many hours, days, years, praying and crying with people as they work through these challenges and come out the other end more content and more generous - more like God.

Couple of other things that I found helpful...

At the start of the book, Amie goes through some of the myths about money that have sadly been preached many times in churches. If you've ever been to church, you've probably heard some of these myths, and they're really quite damaging, and not at all what God has in mind.

Also, there are some very helpful chapters on different money "personalities." Everybody deals with money in a different way, and Amie goes through each style, celebrates the positive points, but also
points out some possible pitfalls in each way of living. I found these chapters helped me to understand myself and the other people around me a lot better.

It's well worth a read, for anyone who has a wallet or bank account (whether they have money in them or not). Everybody deals with money, and it's my belief that the way you use money in your life is one of the best signs of what kind of person you are.

Leaving the Church

Just read a great article written by Micah Smith for Relevant Magazine, commenting on the many many young people who are walking away from church. Read the whole article here if you want to. Here are some of his thoughts...

"There is no shortage of examples in which relationships are critical to the way of Jesus. What happens though, is that when we’re burned by the Church, or when we get exhausted or bored, we flip through scripture and determine that God never endorses a Sunday morning worship service, anyway. “Great,” we think. “I’m off the hook. I can quit this thing and not technically be in any trouble.”

"The problem comes when walking away from the Sunday morning service means walking away from people. From God’s people. From the endless beauty of a common knowledge of a greater good. From people who will serve with you, pray with you, believe in you and fight for you. At the end of the day, the mystery of the Church isn’t a worship song or a sermon. If it is, then sure, walk out of the building, load up your iPod with church podcasts and worship bands, and never look back. But the reality is that sermons and songs aren’t all that you give up when you walk away. You also sacrifice a community of believers.

Work & Grace

"It is the nature of work to provide a material form for the invisibilities of grace."

- Eugene H. Peterson, from his book, Practise Resurrection: A Conversation in Growing Up in Christ

Rain Rain Go Away

It's really quite uncanny. It seems every time we have a community BBQ it rains. The idea is to put on a free BBQ for the community, to make friends and help people get to know some others in their area. We've been trying to do it on the first Sunday of every month, but the current score is three BBQs from about seven attempts. Not a very good average.

It's bizarre. We'll have three perfectly fine weekends in a row, and then the weekend of our BBQ will be wet wet wet. Same thing has happened this month. The last few weekends haven't been too bad, but then I look at the radar for tomorrow and it looks pretty certain that we'll be rained out again.

Haven't we had enough rain now God? It doesn't bother me so much. I mean, it only affects our little BBQ. No great loss. But the colossal amount of water you've sent in our country so far this year has produced devastation and heartache for some of the other people around us.

Not to mention the unbelievable amount of other major tragedies that have already occurred in the few weeks we've had so far this year. As well as the widespread flooding, there've been powerful tropical cyclones, earthquakes in Christchurch, bushfires, intense political turmoil in Libya and Egypt. What are you doing, God? Where are you? What's going on? We've had enough tragedy now for the next 10 years. Enough now, please. Father, let your kingdom of peace come to our broken earth.

And let it be today.

White Ribbon Day

How can it be that God is love?
When blood rolls down upon our land
And fathers lose their only son
Where is the hope?
Oh God we pray for white ribbon day

How can it be that you could love?
When blood ran down that wooden cross
Your father gave his only son
You came for peace
You came to die for white ribbon day

And we pray for peace
To flood our hearts again
Only God can save our nation now
And we long for joy to fill our streets again
Only God can save our nation now

How can it be that God is just?
When flesh is torn from young and old
And children run in bloody fields
Where is the hope?
Oh God we pray for white ribbon day

And we pray for peace
To flood our hearts again
Only God can save our nation now
And we long for joy to fill our streets again
Only God can save our nation now

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah for white ribbon day

And can it be that You are just
When flesh was torn for young and old?
And here we stand saved by Your blood
We'll stand with courage
We'll live and die for white ribbon day

Hallelujah, hallelujah,
Hallelujah for white ribbon day

- Delirious?

God's New Project

"Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of God's new project, not to snatch people away from earth to heaven, but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about."

- from Surprised by Hope, by Tom Wright

Brisbane Floods, and Where is God?

A couple of weeks ago there was major flooding in my city and the surrounding areas, and in fact in an unbelievably large portion of the eastern states of Australia. Some towns are still waiting to see if their river banks will hold. The sheer amount of water is inconceivable, and the effects have been devastating. Many people have lost loved ones, and many more have lost their homes and businesses. And as if that wasn't enough, in the last few weeks a great number of these have since found out that their insurance doesn't cover this kind of flood.

If you entertain the notion of God (whether you believe there is one or not), it doesn't take long before the questions start rolling in...

If there is a God, why didn't he do something? Is he really all that powerful? And if he is powerful, is he really all that good? What kind of person would allow people to suffer like this?

I do believe that God is good and that he loves us immensely, and thankfully the Bible does have some answers for these questions.

First, the sad reality is that there is suffering in this world. Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, bush fires, AIDS, SIDS and cancer are all part of the world we live in. Unfortunately, that's just how this world is. And it affects all of us, whether you believe in God or not.

This would be utterly demoralizing if that was the end of the story. But thankfully it isn't.

The incredible hope of the Bible is that one day God will restore this world. One day God will rebuild it and transform it into a more beautiful, more amazing, more life-giving universe. The Bible promises that in this new world there will be no more crying or pain, no more anguish, no more suffering, because the old world will have passed away. Not only that, but our own bodies (of those who belong to God) will also be restored and transformed - no longer subject to sickness, decay, cancer, or even death itself. One of the writers in the New Testament, Paul, describes this transformation as being something like that of a caterpillar to a butterfly. And those who have already died will be resurrected and given new life and a new body too. I can't wait for this new world, and new way to experience the depths and greatness of it. This is hope.

And what about in the meantime? Do we just wait it out, suck it up, and suffer through this world? Absolutely not. There's hope for right now too. Jesus' life and message when he was on earth was that this new world - which he called the kingdom of heaven - is even now breaking into our world. While the complete restoration is still in the future, the process has already started. It started with Jesus. Practically, he lived it out, and showed others how to live it. Things like love, grace, forgiveness, beauty, joy, mercy, compassion - heaven breaking in. And when we live like this, we're bringing light into the darkness.

But even more than that, Jesus' resurrection was the inauguration of this new kingdom of light. Easter Sunday was the start of an entirely new week. Yes, Jesus died, like we all do. But he then defeated death, and God resurrected him, wonderfully transformed. Now death means nothing to Jesus - it has no power whatsoever. He was the first to be resurrected - and all who believe and live this truth will follow later - and right now he is the reigning king of this world. Just think for a second about the implications.

And right now we can build for this kingdom, helping it break into this world. Jesus told us to pray for God's kingdom to come, on earth as it is in heaven, and now we can join with God to be the answer to that prayer. The restoration has begun. Yes, there is still darkness, tragedy and pain, but that's not all there is. Heaven is breaking in.

Many people who've lost homes in the last couple weeks have said while they were shocked by the damage, they were absolutely stunned by the generosity, compassion and selfless hearts of the thousands of people who came to help them get back on their feet again. Over 22,000 people flooded into Brisbane with mops, buckets and spades, from all over Australia and New Zealand - to help out their neighbours and friends - but more often to help complete strangers. Thousands of volunteers had to be turned away because there were just too many.

In the midst of pain, there can be breathtaking beauty, overwhelming love, inconceivable generosity. God is not absent, and he is not uncaring. He is building a new world, and it's already begun. Look for it, pray for it, see it breaking in, be a part of bringing heaven more fully into earth. And live in hope for that day when God will completely restore everything.