Have you heard it said that anything you say can and will be used against you? This concept isn’t limited to those who are arrested. You know intuitively who you can trust with information that could be damaging to you, and who will use it against you. Yet if you don’t share it with anyone it will be damaging to you by keeping it inside. As a part of your own inner work you need people you can confide in. who can you choose? Start with those who are doing their own inner work for this puts them in a position to show empathy and mercy.

Have you heard of some churches being criticized for being too emotional? Perhaps you have done this yourself. Have you ever heard of a church being criticized for being too intellectual? The conventional view is that emotional responses are easy to generate in the moment but they do not endure. Then what is the best approach to bringing about enduring change in people? Emotions are a valid part of human experience, and if they are not engaged, then the whole person is not engaged. The more dimensions of the person that are involved, the better, and all contribute to transformation.

Would you rather trip over a rock or have a rock fall on you? Neither choice may be attractive, but one is clearly a lower risk than the other. This is true even though when I proposed these alternatives, I said that the one who falls on the rock would be broken. The choices were presented in such a way as to imply that these were the only ones available. Does this sound like a dilemma between being broken and crushed? Have you known people who were broken and yet lived lives that were full and abundant?

Have you ever experienced a miracle? Do you know anyone who has? What are your criteria for determining if something is a miracle? For some it must be a direct contradiction of natural laws. Others are willing to regard multiple unlikely favorable concurrent events as miracles, and the timing is part of the process. Regardless of your definition, do you acknowledge that I can intervene in your world in ways that do not pass the criteria for a miracle? For the definitions are yours rather than mine.