Sally’s Reviews > Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith > Status Update

...when God is involved in a story, death is never the end but is always the gateway to rebirth and resurrection.

But what if there's really no such thing as a crisis of faith? ... What if it just feels like everything is going wrong, but really that instance is a moment when everything is about to go right? ... What if what we often call a faith crisis is actually a divine journey--not from God, or simply to God, but a journey with God?

Jesus isn't a mirror that reflects back all the reasons why we totally suck. .. Instead, Jesus is the one who says, "Just keep walking toward me, and I will help you increase your capacity to receive and to give love."

Orthodoxy and orthopraxy are both important and are both things that Jesus spoke to, but I no longer believe that either of these things belongs in the center of our circles. I think that spot should be reserved for the exact representation of love: Jesus.

Unlike the bounded-set approach where we're constantly trying to measure ourselves up to see whether we're in or out, the centered-set paradigm invites us to ask far more simple and profound questions: "Am I moving toward Jesus? Am I moving toward love?"

The things Jesus thought, and the things that Jesus did, were not a clean fit for those whose entire focus had been right thinking or right doing; Jesus was, and still it, altogether different and outside all of our camps and categories.

Jesus sought out the people who knew they didn't have it all figured out. The invitation he offered to them over and over was merely, "come, follow me."

Drawing identity from any area other than the source of life is a spiritual death sentence, and worse, it's contagious, because it gives birth to tribalism. However, when we return to our central identity of image-bearers designed to receive love from and reflect love to others, we are naturally invited to shed all of the unloving, fear-based tribal behaviors that come from loyalty to the label.

The discussion on end-times narrative implications is more powerful than the beginning narrative ones. Such an important book

When the opening verses of Genesis say that we were created in the image and likeness of God, it is helpful to remember that this means we are actually created in the image and likeness of LOVE. We were created by love. We were created to receive love. We were created to reflect love. Our entire purpose for existing is to love.