I believe we are in another “what we tell our grandchildren” moment with Afghans, Ukrainians, Haitians, Venezuelans, and so many more, fleeing war and violence around the world and seeking protection in the U.S. What will tell our grandchildren when they ask us how we responded?

So, from the vantage point of the wheelchair, I learned a few lessons that I hope will be helpful to others. The lessons start with a full assessment of a church campus, and an open invitation to the congregation and persons who visit the campus regularly to offer ideas about how the campus can truly serve all of God’s people. 

Christmas was not, for me, a time of joy and happiness, and it certainly wasn’t yet about celebrating God in the flesh having been born among us. Christmas was just lonely and sad.

As people of faith we are given frameworks and images of just such alternative ways of being with one another, socially, spiritually, and economically. The kingdom of God calls to us, beckons us, to reimagine our worth, our belonging, our bodies.

Instead of asking us to descend into the caverns of our innermost selves and excavate our authentic identities, [Ecclesiates] offers alternative questions that point us back to the perceptible world: “What is my responsibility to the world around me?” “What does my hand find to do?”