Not only does God have a truly beautiful plan for restoring humanity and all of creation back to his original design. Not only does that plan include you and I and all mankind, but he invites us, he implores us, he empowers us, and he expects us to be a part of that plan! Like Paul, he invites us to see the world with new eyes! To dream about each of our spheres of influent being redeemed and reimagined as God sees them!

God takes pleasure in bringing all things to unity in Christ. This is what God is up to in the world. This is where the story is heading - a rewriting of the story so that all things are brought into perfect unity in Christ. And this brings God pleasure. He delights in redeeming, restoring, renewing, retelling.

The sacraments help us re-enact the story of our redemption. They become physical metaphors for our journey of faith. The sacraments help, that which seems so far away, to be brought close, near to us.

The Bible is the story of God intersecting human history in the person of Jesus. As such, its primary purpose is to bear witness to Christ, the incarnate Word.

On the cross, Jesus defeats the rulers and authorities (and the evil power that animates them). The only way to defeat such powers is to absorb their evil blows and then respond with forgiveness. This is central to Paul's understanding of the cross. We are freed from evil "powers" by Christ's death and resurrection.

I’ve come to see that the ashes (that represent our mortality because of our sinfulness) are true, but in a more beautiful way. We are precious and lovely and bear the image of God. God does not need the blood of Jesus to appease his anger or "pay off" our guilt. God takes on our ashes (sin) and demonstrates the way of love and forgiveness. He re-founds the world on an axis of love.