Exile

Our latest letter comes from Ava and Dan in Northern California. It actually comes from two letters they sent that I’ve edit together. Ava and Dan and their home group truly are “lights in a dark and hurting, but beautiful world.”

Thank you Ava, Dan, and the rest of you all! Your commitment to one another and your community is impacting so many.

Here’s their letter:

Hi there,

When the dead body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi washed ashore last September, the years-long Syrian Civil War struck a nerve across the West, giving a face to the nearly 4 million people who have fled the country for their lives.

By Joseph Sunde

Amid the array of quaint and compelling Christmas tales, O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” continues to endure as a uniquely captivating portrait of the power of sacrificial love.

By Joseph Sunde

Saying “yes” to family involves plenty of love and sacrifice, yet this tends to play out not in grand gestures, but through mundane, everyday struggles.  Saying “yes” to family means loving, encouraging, and blessing each and every day — and not just with our kids or parents, brothers or sisters.

It means pouring into our families that our families might be poured out for the life of the world.

This post originally appeared at the Denver Institute for Faith and Work, where Mr. Haanen is executive director. It is republished here with permission.

By Jeff Haanen

Occasionally you meet somebody that shines with such virtue that you are, perhaps for the first time, made aware of your own poverty of spirit.

By Anthony Bradley

The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., like that of most mortals, evokes a certain ambivalence regarding what should be celebrated and what should be rightly critiqued. There are certainly parts of his life and thinking that warrant correction, rebuke, and challenge, but this will be true of all us if we live long enough.