Perhaps that kind of shared secret was what Jesus had in mind when he told his critics they could not pin down the kingdom of God: "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is, or "There it is, because the kingdom of God is within you."

Most of us see life as an arc beginning with birth, which we can't remember, and death, which we can't imagine.

The word ecstasy comes from the Greek ek stasis, meaning to stand apart from, to go outside of one's self; and the more I extend out from myself, the more I gain. My spirit deepens, I become more fully human, I enlarge. An apparent sacrifice actually ends up serving my own self-interest. In contrast. when I choose for myself alone, I pull in, disconnect from others, shrink.

Standing by a series of concrete fish ladders in Seattle one raw day, I Olearned a new word, smoltification, from a placard describing the life stages of a young river salmon. After several months of solitary contentment as a bottom-dweller and jealous patroller of its modest territory, the fish takes a sudden interest in the larger world. It bobs to the surface now and then, explores surrounding rocks and pools, and then one day embarks on a journey far downstream, where a vast new world awaits it — the Pacific Ocean.

John Wesley, informed that his house had just burned down, had this reaction: "The Lord's house burned. One less responsibility for me!"

“If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party.” — Frederick Buechner

Using his left hand, the only one functional, Merrick began constructing models of buildings, gluing together carefully chosen bits of colored paper and cardboard. He presented the finished models to the celebrities who visited him and to hospital staff. From his room, which overlooked the Church of St. Philip on one corner, he could watch a new hospital church going up, and using the two churches as models he worked for many days to create an exquisite model of a cathedral, fitting in place a cardboard replica of each tiny stone and tile. He called the new church outside "an imitation of grace flying up and up from the mud," and his own model, "my imitation of an imitation."

It is all too easy, however. to focus on the supernatural exceptions, to celebrate the miracles surrounding the Exodus from Egypt without noticing the four centuries of silence that preceded it or the four decades of wilderness misery that followed.

An old Italian proverb comes to mind: "When the chess game is over, the pawns, rooks, kings, and queens all go back into the same box."

"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither," wrote C. S. Lewis.

"Adam, where are you?" God called out in the garden. It was Adam, not God, who hid. God takes the initiative to come searching; we are the ones who hide. And Jesus, the Great Physician, sees our sins not as disqualifiers but as the reason for his journey from another world to ours. Rescue is God's business.

Benedict Groeschel puts it this way: "A saint is just a sinner who is more repentant than most of us."

Guilt is not a state to cultivate or a mood you slip into for a few days. It should have directional movement, first pointing backward to the sin and then pointing forward to change. A person who feels no guilt can never find healing. Yet neither can a person who wallows in guilt. The sense of guilt only serves its designed purpose as a symptom if it presses us toward cure.

Just as my physical body speaks loudly through pain so that I will attend to the injury site, my conscience speaks in the language of guilt so that I will take the steps necessary for healing. The goal in both is to restore health, not to feel bad.

If only evil did resemble a smoldering cinder that we could locate and stomp out. Instead, we more resemble tiny magnets, with one end attracted to and the other end repelled by the same force. Cut a magnet in half and you geta smaller magnet with the same polarity. Cut it again, and again, into sixteen pieces, and you have sixteen pieces attracted on one end and repelled on the other. In just that way the tendency to yield to evil and also to resist it infuses every part of my body, as a kind of inbuilt cellular tension.

Rules serve an important function: like training wheels on a bicycle, they point the beginner in the right direction and protect against injury, The ultimate goal, though, is to ride safely on your own, without props.

"Law teaches many things," concludes Stuntz, "but the most important thing it teaches is its limits, what it cannot do.” Where law falters, love steps in.

I used to think, as does much of the world, "If it feels good, it must be sinful." Such a sentiment stems from a tragic misconception of God. The state God desires for us, shalom, results in a person fully alive, functioning optimally to the Designer’s specification.

Bill Wilson, the cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, reached the unshakable conviction, now a canon of twelve-step groups, that an alcoholic must "hit bottom" in order to climb upward.

Jesus' famous parable of the prodigal son paints the picture clearly. By any standard of good and bad behavior, the prodigal son failed, squandering his inheritance and cavorting with prostitutes. He deserved punishment, not celebration. But the father, representing God, had eyes only for healing and restoration: "This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." God's method with evil is cure, not prevention.

Animals seem content living out the singular goal of survival, without the need to reflect on themselves or grasp for more. Yet when God created a being in God's own image, he built in restlessness, along with curiosity and desire, in full awareness they could lead the human to choose the wrong path.

Cognitive scientists, he explains, recognize a restlessness in the human mind, a need to do something with our thoughts and to pursue goals. Being human means grasping for something more, just as Adam and Eve did.

Every married person I know wonders at times if he or she has married the wrong person.

We instinctively recognize the lie when sex becomes a mere transaction. I know of some societies that legally tolerate prostitution, but none that honor the profession.