Concluding our discussion of the modern experience of crushing, constant guilt, Hayley and Vince move us to the topic of grace: a close-relative of forgiveness, but also distinct in important ways.
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One tension it feels we must hold to live life well is (on one side) pursuing ideals, and (on the other side) choosing to embrace what is true right now and maybe can't be ideal. Hayley and Kyle discuss how to do that well without losing our minds or succumbing to cynicism.
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We collected awesome, honest questions from people in our community about how it’s hard to believe in an all-parts loving, no-parts punishing God. Hayley, Kyle, and Vince (our pastors) have found there ARE actually satisfying responses to these hard questions, that can free us up to feel spiritually alive and active. Even better: there are a number of them. We don’t all have to come to the exact same conclusions…
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Vince shares about the helpfulness of coming to think of himself as “a sinner”, which hasn’t led him to debilitating shame or self-righteousness or judgment of others, but rather to freedom and personal growth and compassion toward himself (and others).
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If Jesus’ death on the Cross is just a confusingly violent picture of a God that requires punishment for his plan to work, Vince feels unsettled. But if Jesus’ death on the Cross is a picture of a loving and self-sacrificial God that chooses solidarity with scapegoats instead of solidarity with the powerful, then Vince finds himself pulled out of his small life and into a big and inspiring story. And he needs that!
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Does Jesus on the Cross paint a picture of an angry, violent God who needs his wrath satisfied? Vince shares his journey away from that unsettling interpretation of Jesus on the Cross and toward a different interpretation that is the opposite of unsettling — one that is loving and inspiring and beautiful in the way it speaks to humanity in general and in the way it can speak to each of us personally.
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Our anxiety levels are not a secondary matter to God. Finding a happy, content, restful heart at any given moment seems to be a major player in life going well. But day-in, day-out, that is a fight! (As a day in the life of Vince proves...)
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