Jesus is either Master or nothing. If at any point you believe “Jesus and some other thing” is a viable possibility, you’ve chosen the wide way.

But if your fear of people discourages you from being faithful to the text and to God, then somewhere in there you don’t believe God is with you.

Faith in the nearness of God creates the resilience needed to keep leading, loving, giving, evangelizing, serving, praying for, and preaching to.

doubt often feels more practical than believing God.

The very part of Peter that caused him to fail was the very part God used.

If we understand everyone, friend and foe, neighbor and nuisance, as made in the likeness of God, the words we say should be tempered by that truth. Every single person we will ever converse with, both sinner and saint, bears the image of God; and for that reason, each person is worthy of honor.

To practice Sabbath is a disciplined and faithful way to remember that you are not the one who keeps the world running, who provides for your family, not even the one who keeps your work projects moving forward.8

We are raising babies and getting degrees and eating jackfruit pulled-pork sandwiches and listening to podcasts and exfoliating our pores—all while trying to serve in church and read the Bible and resist the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The rest we resist is for our good. It’s a way to steward our entire selves. To sit down and just think. Or pray. Or meditate on grace and how it shows up in all the goodness we experience daily. Rest reorients us. Pausing makes room for memories. In silence and solitude, we can remember that man doesn’t live by bread alone.