Freedom Is Not Having Everything We Crave,

Jesus Is Bigger Than Any One Religion. He Didn't Come To Start A New Religion, And He Continually Disrupted Whatever Conventions Or Systems Or Establishments That Existed In His Day. He Will Always Transcend Whatever Cages And Labels Are Created To Contain And Name Him, Especially The One Called "christianity.

We Can Choose The Way Of Compassion, The Way Of Forgiveness, The Way Of Generosity. Or We Can Choose Other Paths And Those Have Very Real Consequences In The World. This Is Absolutely Crucial.

And A Lot Of Times, The Religious Discussion Is Almost A Masquerade For The Real Question, Is What Stories That We Tell Ourselves And That We Tell Each Other And What Convictions And Beliefs Actually Have The Capacity To Make Us The Kind Of People Who Together Can Make The World The Kind Of World We All Want It To Be?

My Experience As A Pastor Is Lots Of People Have Really Toxic, Dangerous, Psychologically Devastating Images Of God In Their Head, Images Of A God Who's Not Good.

Freedom Is Not Having Everything We Crave, It's Being Able To Go Without The Things We Crave And Being Ok With It.