Articles

I think fewer of us expect kindness today. Many of us expect more of the opposite, actually. We expect to hear unkind words, bullying in our schools, and hatefulness on the news and social media.

No wife is ever prepared to hear the words,“Your husband is dead,” but these were the words I heard on Wednesday morning, February 27. “How can this be?” I thought. We’d just enjoyed a  normal morning: breakfast, fun with our granddaughter, and getting ready for the day. He can’t be gone. But he is.

“And Jesus stopped…” (Mark 10:49)

He was on His way to be crucified. He had just spent many hours answering question after question from those wanting direction: a rich man inquiring about what he must do to inherit eternal life; two of His disciples asking for the promise to sit on either side of Him in glory; countless other pleas for healing, help, and just a few minutes of His time.

I have a confession to make: I don’t use social media. I don’t tweet, post, snap, like, or live-stream. Cutting ties with social media was a choice I prayerfully made a few years ago in an effort to battle distraction, temptation, and time-wasting. However, I was still distracted because my smartphone was right at my fingertips ready to offer me streaming TV shows, news articles, games, google searches, sports scores, YouTube, and a host of…

Have you ever been blown away by a vision of what could be, challenged and inspired in a way that could upend your whole life? This book did that for me.

The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield casts a vision for radically ordinary hospitality.  “Oh no!” you might be thinking. “Not another book about hospitality! My house isn’t up to snuff. I don’t have room. I can’t cook to save my life.”