“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...
