The Rabbi Lawrence Kushner wrote a book called God Was in This Place and I, I Did Not Know, in which each chapter is a different interpretation of the same passage in the Bible.

It’s the moment of upheaval when you realize that the way you’re living or thinking or treating people isn’t working. You’re the one throwing pearls to pigs, and it’s absurd. And you need to stop.

people who have a peace that you want. I imagine they have a non-anxious presence about them, a calm and stillness that comes from making peace with life. And with that comes a particular posture toward others: they love you and give to you but in a way that doesn’t feel pressured or clingy.

fully entrusted others to God’s loving care, we may be giving them good things for bad reasons. We may be forcing things on them they don’t want or they aren’t ready for, and they may feel pressured or manipulated. And when people feel like that, they usually lash out.

Other times, and here’s the unexpected twist, people try to control others not through negative things but through good things. Like giving gifts and excessive praise—all of it an attempt to control.

People with a high need to control others are generally doing it as a way of dealing with the lack of control they’re experiencing within themselves.

When your interior life is a mess, when you’re racked with worry and guilt and anxiety, you’re desperate for a distraction, something to take your thoughts off of the pain and chaos within you. Which often expresses itself in judging and shaming and condemning others.

Worry is lethal to thriving because it’s a failure to be fully present. Worrying about something means you’re there, not here—stuck ruminating on the future, not enjoying the present. Jesus teaches us to be fully present in this moment, not missing a thing right here, right now.

So what’s the point? In the story, God commits to upholding both ends of the deal. Even if Abraham fails to do his part, this God will be faithful.