On human worth in relationships: Does anyone, including God, delight in us?

“Why do we so infrequently delight in one another? It’s people who don’t know us well that often find the most to appreciate in us. And that leaves us worried that to know us is to not delight in us. Because we long to be delighted in, we keep friends at a distance from which they won’t see the bad.

“The problem, I think, is that we don’t really believe there is something terrific in us that would arouse delight. Or, if there is, we believe that the deeper things, which are more true about us, are bad. Goodness lies on the surface. Badness runs deep. We’re having a hard time believing the centerpiece of the New covenant [the good news of Jesus], that forgiven people have caught a glimpse of Christ and that the Spirit has used that glimpse to create goodness within us, a goodness that is more defining of who we are than our badness.”

-Larry Crabb, Connecting, p. 13

Professor and author Brene' Brown made a simple but profound statement when she said, "We are wired for struggle and worthy of love." Unfortunately, most of society, the world, and a great deal of religious dogmatism seems to disagree. As a result, we are left with the thoughts, emotions, hurts and frustrations that Larry Crabb has expressed above. At Starting Point we explore the tensions of these dynamics, and wonder together about how the Gospel of Jesus cuts against the grain of standard religious and worldwide tendencies to evaluate worth based on a "what have you done for me lately" paradigm. Come join us to see if there is even hope of another paradigm...

Christianity...Just for the sake of "harnessing the young and giving comfort to the old?"

"Young people are told from birth to be good and do good. They live with rules, grades and expectations. Those who are successful in keeping those rules and meeting those expectations often find grace to be difficult to accept. To them, grace can seem like a covering for evil. They usually think that when the grace talk is over, the behavior is going to be bad, and Christian young people are usually most careful in the area of distinctive and different behavior.

"Christian young people who have made different moral choices than the majority may truly not see the wonder of grace. They haven't sinned enough. Or to be more exact, they don't see the outrage of their own sins clearly. The foundation of morality their parents and teachers built in their lives may make it difficult to see their own sinfulness honestly. The culture war focus that rages around Christian young people puts unusual emphasis on making choices and "being righteous." It's not at the exclusion of the Gospel, but it's often at the expense of the Gospel." -Michael Spencer

What do you think? Do you think the concept of God's reckless grace just allows for bad behavior? Is religion just something that, as one band feared might be something simply to "Harness the young and give some comfort to the old?"* Have you been "ruled out" by churches/religions in the past? Is faith in Jesus that...or is it something completely different? These are the types of things we grapple with at Starting Point...We invite you to join us!

*From the band Caedman's Call; song-"Prove Me Wrong"

Real Hospitality and the Grace of God

Can a God who judges also be a God who is gladly and indefinitely hospitable?

"Think of your experience of God's grace in terms of hospitality: at a point of great need and alienation, he takes you into his family, provides a cleansing bath and gives you new clothes; he invites you to his nourishing table and blesses you with his presence. And he extends this welcome indefinitely. This is what God is like and what he wants us to be like. Hospitality means welcoming others and offering provision, protection and blessing. It doesn't happen only at our dining tables. Our texts this week reveal the shape of hospitality. In serving others, we actually serve God, as the Abraham story and Jesus' teaching about judgment make clear. In fact, our hospitality communicates the gospel and embodies God's grace, especially when we offer it to those with the greatest need and the least ability to pay us back." (Italics mine)


Scriptures: Genesis 18:1-17; Deuteronomy 10:12-22; Psalm 23; Ruth 2 and 4:13-22; Matthew 25:31-46; Luke 14:1-14; 3 John

We invite you to pay attention to the wonder of an indefinite welcome of God and what that might mean to you...Join us at Starting Point as we wander into the questions,frustrations and hopes that lie in this idea...Can a God who is judge also be a God who is hospitable?

Beginning to Understand...It's O.K. to be "Bent"

image via by Photos8.org

“When mercy stole quietly into my soul, the trembling stopped and the tears—which in my self-estrangement had dried up—began to flow again. The touch of infinite kindness to my nothingness wasn’t mere tenderness; it was suffused with a gentleness that transcended tenderness. And yet the experience was so subtle that mercy entered my heart unnoticed.

“The shabby streets of my soul were still littered with the debris of vanity, dishonesty, and degraded love. It wasn’t as if a sanitation worker had suddenly appeared to rid the neighborhood of every mound of unsightly garbage. When mercy came in the back door, my character defects didn’t bolt out the front door; they went underground, but they didn’t leave (and still haven’t). What happened is virtually impossible to explain—and it’s better for that. What I intuitively apprehend now, in retrospect, is that mercy kissed my brokenness, Too-Much-Love (John 3:16) cradled a wounded child, and for a biblically valid but inexplicable reason it was okay to be bent.”

-Brennan Manning, The Wisdom of Tenderness, p. 143-144

We invite you to come as you are, where you are, with where you've been and what you've been...Along with all the questions you might have. All of it belongs in the grand story...

What changes us? Relationships...

“Inevitably, what changes people’s lives is not some concept or principle. It’s not some bestselling self-help book or the memorizing of Scripture. Instead, what powerfully transforms, over and over and over again, is relationship. It’s the presence of Jesus embodied in a friend, a therapist, a pastor, a group, in Christ’s broken body shared in the Lord’s Supper. It’s a palpable taste of shalom.

It’s the relationship that transforms.”

-Chuck Degroat, Leaving Egypt, p. 201



Starting Point at Cedar Springs is first and foremost an exploration of, and an invitation to, relationships-with others and with God. Join us as we seek to realize how our lives, our journeys, our stories are remarkable parts of a grand, relational narrative. It's messy, it's mysterious, and it is beautiful.

The Peace of Wild Things, by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

Switchfoot's "Restless" Says Quite A Bit...

Growing up, God, Community & Stability

"In Thomas Merton's words...we have been 'destined from all eternity to bring one another closer to God by our love, our patience, our forbearance, and our efforts at mutual understanding.' We grow up into a life with God, built on a firm foundation, as we learn to dwell in a place with particular people.

"...Stability demands that we do the long, hard work of life with other people in the place where we are...[and yet]...Despite our longing for community, we often hide from a 'state of mutual visibility with others' because it is more difficult than cultivating a personal spirituality and sense of tranquility...Choosing a spirituality that 'works for me' is so much easier than dealing with the people who show up at the church in my neighborhood."

-Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, in his book, The Wisdom of Stability : Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture

The Divine Root and Boundless Mystery of Your Humanity

“Our DNA is divine. The divine indwelling is never earned by any behavior whatsoever or any ritual, but only recognized and realized (Romans 11:6, Ephesians 2:8-10), and fallen in love with. When you are ready, you will be both underwhelmed and overwhelmed at the boundless mystery of your own humanity. You will know you are standing under the same waterfall of mercy as everybody else and receiving an undeserved, radical grace, which waters the ‘roots’ of everything.”

Fr. Richard Rohr, adapted from his book, The Naked Now, p. 22

The Mystery of Gray "Days"

The grayness of a day neither declares nor determines the value and ultimate beauty of its weather.  We know this because we have learned about the importance of all types of weather for healthy soil and animal life.  But during a gray, rainy, seemingly lifeless day, it's often difficult to recognize any ultimate value resulting from said weather. 

Often, this is the way we feel with regard to the seasons and realities of our own lives, isn't it?  Be it the wounding gray we've experienced at the hands of others, or the painful gray we ourselves have brought into the lives of those around us by our own struggles and mistakes.  It's so difficult to see any ultimate value in confusion, pain, or suffering, particularly when we are in the midst of it; we may not even want to.  We might even be angry that someone would dare to ascribe anything positive to the mess and suffering of life.  That's ok, and it makes sense...

We virtually never see the whole picture, regardless of whether our souls are experiencing a season of "Februaryish" gray milieu or one of refreshingly bright April mornings.  So how can we even begin to gain a more ultimate perspective or sense of real hope in the midst, especially, the darker seasons?  And where is God in the midst of it all?  Does he care?  Is he involved-positively or negatively?  Does he have any control at all?

These are some of the realities of life we explore at Starting Point.  We would love for you to join us as we wade into the questions honestly, without any presumptive or Pollyanna declarations.  We believe God respects humans too much and is far too honest for any of that.   

To Live by Grace...

"To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark.  In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God's grace means." -Brennan Manning

A Poem by Wendell Berry on Mystery, Life, God, Eternity

It takes all time to show eternity,
The longest shine of every perishing spark,
And every word and cry of every tongue
Must form the Word that calls the darkest dark

Of this world to its lasting dawn.  Toward
That rising hour we bear our single hearts
Estranged as islands parted in the sea,
Our broken knowledge and our scattered arts.

As separate as fireflies or night windows,
We piece a foredream of the gathered light
Infinitely small and great to shelter all,
Silenced into song, blinded into sight.


"VIII Sabbaths 2004"
from Wendell Berry's collection titled Given Poems