-
Kindness
There’s a sign in someone’s yard on the route my wife and I regularly walk. It’s painted blue and red and proclaims in bold white letters: JUST BE KIND. I like that sign. And even though I don’t know the people who live in that house and made that sign, I like them too. Because anyone who goes through the trouble of making and posting a sign that says JUST BE KIND is probably the kind of people I want to be around. Kindness is contagious, after all. When we experience kindness or see kindness demonstrated, we’re more likely to go and do likewise. Kindness makes the world a better…
-
The Way of Jesus Is The Way of Love and Inclusivity
I think love and inclusivity are the central virtues of Jesus’s kingdom vision. I’ve thought this for quite a while. And it’s a significant reason why I resigned from my post and surrendered my ministry credentials after 10 years as a lead pastor in a conservative evangelical denomination. I reached a point where I couldn’t be the pastor I believed that God called and gifted me to be, the pastor I wanted to be, and I couldn’t love people — all people — the way I believed Jesus’s central kingdom virtues demanded. The denomination was fond of saying that we welcomed all people. But we really didn’t. We welcomed them…
A Blog by Sam Ochstein.