Offense obscures our vision. Removing offense enables us to see people in wonderful, new ways.

One of the hardest-to-swallow, most countercultural, counter intuitive implications of the gospel is that bearing up under a difficult burden with patient perseverance is a good thing.

We can play pretend and try to set up an aquarium-type existence, devoid of interaction with anything or anyone who might challenge or upset us, but that's not the world Jesus came to save.

It takes childlike humility to embrace the love of God, to realize how "unfair" it is, and then quickly add, "but I'll take it!