And if you keep telling people who they are, who their best selves are, if you keep reminding them of their true identity, there’s a good chance they’ll figure out what to do.

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.

Some things that are labeled Christian aren’t true, and some things that aren’t labeled Christian are true. Some atheists say lots of things that are true, and some Christians are full of shit.

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.

If you start with instructions and commands, people might be mistaken into thinking that God loves us because of what we do or how religious or moral or good we are. That’s not gospel. Gospel is the announcement of who God insists you are. You’re a child of God, not because of how great you are but because God has all kinds of kids and you’re one

One of the passages that was taught at the Festival of Tabernacles is from the prophet Jeremiah. The passage is about dust, which is what you have if you don’t have water. Here are a few lines: LORD, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust . . .

It moves from Jerusalem to Rome, from the known to the unknown, from the particular to the universal, from the local to the global, from one people group to all people.

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.

And what happens when people confront power structures? What happens when people call out the powers that be when those powers have lost the plot? Often the person gets killed. This is not just a nice story about how we should be less judgmental—this is about political and social resistance to anything that robs people of their dignity and honor.