Christianity isn’t a religion because it isn’t a path toward God, a spiritual regimen to follow. Oh, to be sure, people turn Christianity into a religion all the time, twisting it into a moral self-improvement project. But whenever Christianity is turned into a pathway, gives you a plan to get closer to God, it is no longer a proclamation of the gospel. … Christianity is history. An event. A report. News. Glad tidings.
Richard Beck, “The Non-Religion”
Of course, two thousand years later, you might think that the good news isn’t exactly new. And when life gets hard, as it often does, you might also feel as though the good news isn’t even good, either.
And yet—and yet—if we let it, for him who hath ears to hear, it is a continual surprise, “a knock at the door,” a new-every-morning universequake.
The trick is having good ears.
Brave Ole World 