As we look to 2025, it seems appropriate to focus on Evangelistic Mission. What better time than the beginning of the Season of Epiphany to stir up one another to love in good deeds towards those outside the community of Faith?

When I went to school in Austin, Texas in the 1990’s, there was a bumper sticker that said “Question Reality”. That always tickled me, and I continue to question reality today.

God’s first choice for where humankind should live was a garden. The soil in the Garden of Eden was completely fertile and every kind of flower, tree and plant imaginable grew in perfect conditions.

I confess that I struggle with perfectionism. It seems that even despite my best intentions to the contrary, I so often set up this image in my mind of what excellence looks like, and then I beat myself up as I struggle to attain it…or descend into shame as I inevitably fall short.