Wanting to Be Liked

An obstacle in many people's decision-making processes, whether they realize it or not, is the desire to be liked. It really can be a driving force behind what a person ultimately chooses for all sorts of decisions, big and small.

The problem with this is it can cause bad, or not the wisest, choices to be made. For instance, a person asks you do something, like go to a movie with them, but you really feel that you should rest because you're feeling sick or too tired from the week. But ultimately, you decide to go because saying "no" may cause that person to be displeased. Not all people understand the need for rest might trump hanging out. But of course the healthier and better option is to say "no" in a case like this.

One way to help make better choices is to, instead of asking "What will this person think of me if I make certain choices?" ask "What is the best for me and all involved?" In the case above, saying "no" is the best overall. It'll help you feel better, and may help the relationship or the other person too. If you rest, you'll have more energy to spend quality time later with that person. If the person is offended by the "no," then it's good you said "no" because it shows indications on how to proceed in the future (like how real the friendship is—if it's only that person caring for oneself then it isn't much of a friendship).

If you ask more "What is the best for me and all involved?" when making a decision, it may more likely cause good people to truly like you compared to if you were to always ask "What will this person think of me if I make certain choices?" Truly good people most likely will respect and appreciate those who are aiming for good. You may get more resistance and questions when making decisions based on what's good for all involved—sometimes people don't see it as "good" and may disagree—but it's worth it.

The Bible tells us to do things to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31), and God desires the good of his people and for his people to help others. So this falls in line with what God wants for us too. He doesn't want us to focus on worrying about the self too much (Matthew 6:25-34). "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33)

Allowing God to be God

Often we need to keep an open mind about what God will do.  God is often a God of many surprises.

We expect this or that and he does something else.  It isn't as if God is random, rather is it that he sees the whole picture and we look at the tiny threads of life.

We often fail to see our limits and lack of perception of the whole picture.  We feel we can make better judgments than God although we often have very limited information.

We need to humble ourselves and allow God to chip through our pride.  God has the answers and not us.

If we feel God is wrong the issue is at our end and not at God's.  We often simply need to step back and remind ourselves of who we are.  Our flaws, our limits, and our lack of knowledge.

And trust that God's goodness and wisdom is sufficient.

It is too Difficult

At times a point is raised in casual Christian discussion about if the bible teaches this or that. Often someone will object, but "it is too difficult," or, "we cannot know what it means."

Is it too hard to understand or are we avoiding the issue? If it seems that the bible may say something can we really excuse ourselves after a minute of contemplation saying the task cannot be understood. Or are we just offering an excuse to avoid the issue at hand.

Or is the teaching really too difficult to live out? If God has taught that we should live a teaching out God has given us resources to live the teaching out.

Maybe we cannot understand the teaching or feel we cannot live the teaching because we have not spent enough time. The bible is blessedly inconvenience.

I say blessedly because the bible is not satisfied with "good enough ethics" or a "not being a bother to society ethic." The bible is an active power.

God knows we will fail and loves us unconditionally, but God asks us to follow Jesus. Wherever Jesus leads us we will follow.

When God called Jonah to Nineveh it was a blessed inconvenience to save many souls. Sometimes we simply need to trust that God's wisdom is above our wisdom.

If we disagree with God it is not that God is wrong, but rather that we are limited. Even if we intend well we lack the vantage point to see God's wisdom.

The Spirit of the Law

The spirit of the law always trumps the letter of the law. When Jesus entered the world he experienced difficulty at every turn for following the true intent of God's law.

Our sinful nature likes simple answers. We want everything to be yes or no.

We do not want a call to wisdom. A call to judge rightly. A call to place others before ourselves.

That is why legalism delights in simple answers. Simple answers avoid responsibility because they allow for infinite outs.

This is the persons own fault so I have no need to intervene is the response of the sinful heart. Maybe it is true that something is a persons fault. And maybe we should not intervene, but maybe we should.

You see the bible does not allow us to so easily shirk our responsibility as legalism does. It calls us to view all things in light of the love for God and love for our neighbor.

What is ethical is placed in the higher light of true real love. In the face of real true love cliche easy answers are no longer possible.

That is why the biblical path of wisdom often falls out of fashion. Thinking and using discernment do not allow the easy shirking of the will of God that legalism provides.

As St. Augustine said: Love God and do what you please. If we truly love God we cannot go much wrong.

Patience: Why It's Worth Praying For

"Don't pray for patience!" The "joke" usually starts off like this and continues:  "If you do, then God will allow some situation to really try your patience so that you will have a chance to grow in it! No one wants to have a difficult situation like that. Bad things happen. It's hard to be patient." I've heard this joke when I was a teen, and I admit I laughed the first time.

But over the years, it's hard to laugh at it because I realize now patience is so closely tied to hope and growth in general. How do people become good at writing or good at a profession or a hobby? Well, over the years I've noticed, by just participating and being there, what I painfully knew I couldn't do--to think of certain words that are just right when I need them (I tend to write and edit)--actually happen much more often and easily now. It happened just by patiently watching, reading, and practicing over many years. That was patience. The opposite of patience would be to rage and give up.

We hear grand stories of people who somehow were experts or had great success in something in a small amount of time and hope we are like that. But honestly that is rare, and that's why we hear about it.

Or most likely, we see a finished piece of anything, and think it must be easy. But when we get there, we wonder why it's so hard. Like writing. As I studied it, I've been told that the best writing, the ones with smaller snappier words that seem like conversation or compelling, are sometimes the hardest and take the longest to write. You would have never guessed by just reading it, unless you've endeavored to be a writer and experienced it.

I think patience is hard to want because we felt like as a child patience was always what we were told to do when it was so hard. Filled with energy, we didn't want to wait. Excited over the smallest things, we were ready to go now. And we had to depend on our parents to do many things like go somewhere. Now we're older, but in a consumer culture getting things now is much better than waiting.

Wisdom and Patience: How They Work Together
Along with patience helping us grow in a hobby or skill, patience is also a big part of much wisdom. Want to be wise with money? Learn how to save and invest. Saving and investing is basically being patient in not using that money now.

Also, fearing/respecting God is wisdom, and to do that we need to be patient in allowing what we want to happen in God's timing, or being okay if things work out differently than we wanted or imagined. We recognize that God is all-wise and all-good, so what he allows is good for us and him.

How to Respond to "God Allowing Trying Events"
If patience is a big part of wisdom, why not pray for more of it? If we're worried like the joke says, that we'll have another trying event if we do pray for it, and that we can't handle one more hard thing in our life, maybe it is a good time for patience. Part of patience is knowing that life is hard in general and letting it go--not worrying about it that much and knowing that this too shall pass in time and focusing on what matters most and the process of things.

It's possible that we're ignoring the fact that much of life, if we've taken on normal responsibilities of school or work, are filled with times to be patient: Human relationships require patience because of human error from all sorts of things: misunderstandings in communication based on differences in values, personality, or culture;  lack of sleep or food can cause grumpiness or mistakes; and even at our best, we still make mistakes. And just the way our world is, whether we pray for patience or not, our car will break down at some point or a new or unexpected bill arrives in our mailbox. Life, if we're living it well, is full of times that require patience. But it's totally worth it.

So I'd say take the risk to pray for patience. It's worth it, especially since it's so helpful in everyday life when you grow in it. Even if soon after you pray for patience you experience one of the hardest times of your life, there will be years after where you benefit from how at that time you learned how to more quietly and confidently weather difficulties. What if each time you prayed for patience, the helpful stuff you learned in tough times spread to all areas of life for years ahead.

The key is to continue to be open and willing to learn. Some people stop caring about learning as they get older, convinced they feel fine and are probably right about, well, everything. But we are called to be humble in learning from God's Word, which applies to all of areas of life and living. In difficult times we may be able to learn something. Not always, but sometimes.

The Spirit of Prayer

Often the spirit of prayers is more important than the specifics.  There is often a great debate  about what we should pray for.


While I suppose there is a use in debating what we should pray for I believe we should be more concerned with the heart of prayer.   Coming to God with needs and without answers is often more helpful than coming with a plan.


You see we often overthink ourselves.  We decide what God should do and then see how we can help God can go about making it happen.


Often we simply need to admit a lack of answers and be open to the fact that we do not know what is needed.  When we are humble we are open to the leading of God.


Too often we try to figure out the need before going to God when we should instead go to God to ask what the need is.  Often praying for wisdom is far more important than praying for results.

Taking the Bible Seriously

I have had a number of conversations where in Christian circles where I have brought up the concept of Christian liberty. The concept that unity in small matters is more important than arguing the finest hairs of truth is found throughout scripture.

Almost immediately there comes an objection. The idea brings in relativity. We will keep arguing every tiny detail, because we who are we to decide what is important or not.

At times the attempted piety of persons is an excuse to not take the bible seriously. The bible calls us to seek wisdom. To actually think and make decisions.

The bible calls us to wisdom. It does not call us to mindlessly refuse to decide what is important. The bible calls us to think and discern as image bearers of God.

The bible is not a call to a mindless life of acting as if every thing is of the same importance. We cannot be faithful to scripture if we refuse to seek wisdom.

We are not seeking wisdom if we do not take seriously what the bible takes seriously. The call to unity in the church requires that we seek wisdom.

Of course truth is important. It takes no wisdom to see this. It takes wisdom to see how unity and truth relate. And how not all truth is worth fighting over.

We cannot piously reject the teaching of scripture. And refuse to incorporate concepts into our thought that scripture teaches.

Wisdom with Money

We aren't able to know the future, and therefore it's wise to save and spend wisely. Giving to God and those in need is some of what should be done with money, but beyond that it's important to prepare for the future.

Many people might say that it's fine to not care how money is spent because God will provide for our needs. But God does care how we spend our money. God asks us to be good stewards. That means if we have money that can be saved, and its wise to save at that time in life, to do that.

Part of being humble is knowing our limitations. We are limited in knowing the future, and in response we should prepare for our future by working and saving. Not in a stressed out way, but in a way that is consistently making wise choices. God is sovereign and knows our future and directs our lives, but that doesn't mean that we don't have responsibility and aren't graciously allowed to play a part in God's story.

God cares about things that we consider to be small things. Some people may think that money seems to be such a small, unimportant thing in matters of spirituality. But God made money, and it's one way that allows people to interact and to show their heart.

God wants us to enjoy things too that we can have by spending money. And some money can be spent on enjoying things of life if there is money to do that and we're carefully considering the best way to spend money. That's why wisdom is important. Wisdom helps us to know how much to save, to give, and to spend on needs and wants.

Often, though, enjoying things doesn't require much or any money. Spending more times with those we love often costs nothing. And we may find ways that are much cheaper, compared to what we currently spend on having fun, to have fun.

How to Gain Wisdom
You might be wondering how one becomes wise or gains wisdom with money. I'd say if you know you need wisdom in that area, one thing that helps is praying for it.

The second thing to do would be to take a careful look at how you spend money and how much you have in savings and ask questions like how prepared are you for things like less work or an emergency.

When you're carefully looking at how money is spent and planning how you will spend and save money, don't compare yourself to others, like feeling like you need something that you don't because almost everyone you know has something or does something. It could be that people do these things but never need them. The only reasons some of them do them is because everyone else is doing them. And if they didn't, they might save a whole lot of money that they need. One example is buying coffee from a coffee shop very frequently. Often making coffee at home saves money. Or feeling the need to go with a group that goes out to eat every week at lunch. That might be very important in a way, depending on how it relates to your work and life, but it might be something that's not needed. And not doing it could save so much money.

I wrote a post on how to know things with your heart. I'd suggest everything in that post. One thing I included there is that it takes time. Patience is important in the process. Because you will be learning and growing as you go along. It takes time to get better at these things. So try your best now and grow when you see chances to grow.

Protestantism Against the Spirit of Protestantism

The spirit of Protestantism is to always go back to scripture. It is not a call to think outside the context of the church, but to always test what the church says against scripture.

Unfortunately today we find many protestant churches who are developing extensive written and verbal tradition which they hold to be unquestionable. It is not that people should immediately doubt written or verbal tradition, but all tradition is subservient to the word of God.

No tradition can be unquestionable in itself. It only stands or falls in its relation to the revelation of God.

I personally feel that traditions in churches are not a detriment and are often a help to the church as long as the church realizes the traditions cannot be held in any absolute way. The issue is that often the traditions of the church begin to become indistinguishable from the teaching of God to the leaders of churches.

I have been in a number of churches where the eldership seems to believe certain pieces of generally good advice are commandments in scripture. I often search for the biblical basis of this good advice and cannot find any absolute grounding in scripture.

We should always distinguish between what is generally good advice and what is scripture. And what is tradition that our church appreciates and tradition which is mandated by scripture (i.e. baptism and the Lord's supper).

I believe non-biblically mandated traditions and general wisdom have a place in churches, but they can never be viewed absolutely or espoused as if they are scripture. We must always distinguish between the clear teaching of scripture and our culturally conditioned applications of wisdom and worship.

Love often Fails

It is often that love fails. It fails in the sense that it is driven back and there is no hope of success. Often you see an optimism that love always prevails, but the reality of scripture is that love does not always succeed.

Many of the prophets of God where driven back and failed in a sense as they taught love. They did not fail in their righteous living but love is often driven back by evil. God does not always allow love to prevail over evil in this life.

At times love may need a strategical retreat. You find a number of instances in the bible where the bible teaches that we should remove ourselves from situations rather than continue.

Love is an active power for good in the world, but we need to have wisdom. Love will not always prevail and at times love should retreat to a safe distance. There are hopeless battles and while we should not presuppose any battle is hopeless it can quickly become apparent that some battles cannot be won.

In the Christian life we often need to use wisdom or seek wisdom in prayer. At times attempted "love" that ignores the facts of situations can be more harmful than completely ignoring the situations present.

Spirit and Truth in Debate and Life

We often find in discourse that people will wish to win an argument by a trick question or by bringing quotations out of context to win an argument.  It is as if getting the "right result" is more important than the method by which the result is obtained.

I am convinced that we cannot seek to follow God and not care about the methods by which arguments are won.  I believe that any dispute won by deception or guile or shortcuts is usually a battle which is lost.

The truth shines in the light.  If we cannot win a dispute taking the high road and acting in spirit and truth than the battle is not worth winning.

It is often that arguments are won in Christian circles by people misquoting scripture.  They bring certain texts out of context because it seems to conveniently prove their point.  If they brought in texts which really deal with the issue it becomes too muddied and their "win" is more difficult.

You see the bible had great nuance.  And many situations in the bible require wisdom.  That is why pulling definitive texts which do not apply to the situation at hand is so detrimental.

The bible does not give easy answers to many questions.  We are a people who love quick fixes and easy answers.  We don't like situations where the answer after much thought requires thought and wisdom and may be opposed to the general conscious of the current day.

We do not like any areas where there is greyness.  Everything is so black and white.  That is the way the bible is of course we think.  But the reality is that often in the bible men acting in faith did not know what to do.

If everything is always so clear there would be no need for the constant call of the bible to wisdom.  There is very much which exists in a very clear cut ethical state.  But there are also many things where it is difficult to know what is right.

Too often the church jumps in and tries to impose clear cut answers without thought on people who are in situations which require much thought.  We are often far too confident in ourselves and far too eager to try to solve problems which will take far more thought and prayer to solve than we are willing to devote.

We fail to solve many problems because we are so set in our ways that we are not open to the solution at times.

Courage and Awkward Moments

Post by
Michelle Dowell, Co-Contributor

Many people like to talk about how a moment or a time feels or is awkward. This means that there was some discomfort in a situation, and it's often caused by an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence.

One example is when two people run into each other who might not like each other. They say hi or ignore each other. That is considered an awkward moment by many people.

Some people avoid awkward moments all the time, if they can help it.

It's good to aim to help awkward moments be as few as possible because we should aim to enjoy spending time with people we decide to be around, but it's also important to realize that wisdom might mean at times having courage to enter into a potentially awkward moment. For the moment it will feel awkward, but it's likely to have a potential long term good benefit to it. For example, if a friendship you value is struggling and you don't know why or you do and it's worth saving, talking to that friend about it might feel or seem very awkward, but it may well be worth it. But it requires courage.

Sometimes the Bible says we should act when we know we'll feel at least a little awkward in the situation. Like Moses who was aware that he wasn't a good speaker but was being asked to speak anyway.

We can't wait for things to look or feel perfect. If we always wait for things to be perfect, we'll never act or do anything. The world isn't perfect. Learning or growing doesn't require only working hard. It also requires allowing for it to feel new and different or challenging and therefore uncomfortable in some sense at times. It also requires the chance for mistakes, to learn from them.

Wisdom with Errors

It takes wisdom to deal with errors or to know how to respond or not respond to errors in the church. Always in scripture there are two principles: unity and truth.

One proverb tells us to "answer a fool according to his error or he will be wise in his own eyes" another tells us to "not answer a fool according to his folly or he will be wise in his own eyes." Which is it? Of course it is a call to wisdom.

All errors are not the same. Some errors are very dangerous and some errors are of almost no importance at all.

We need wisdom when we see errors and issues in life. Certain interpretations of passages of scripture while wrong may be of little interest in arguing over.

Often you will find a person read into a piece of scripture a point which is not in the scripture text, but found throughout scripture itself. It would be a great folly to have a large disagreement over something which is a misinterpretation of a scriptural text, but in line with the whole teaching of scripture.

Even some errors spoken which are out of accord with scripture are of little interest. Not everything is equally important.

But some errors are of great importance. Issues around the nature of God, the nature of man, sin, the trinity, grace, and gospel are very central. Everything in the bible is of importance, but not everything of importance is equally important.

Emphasis in Theology is Key

Emphasis makes or breaks theology. Most off balance theologies over-emphasises certain truths. Other theologies neglect and ignore or under-emphasise certain truths.

A theology with highly over-emphasised and under-emphasised elements can sometimes be more dangerous than outright theological error.

Christian faith requires balance. This is why scripture calls us to wisdom. Many things are contextual in nature. The context of biblical truth and its application in life need to be contextually appropriate.

There are many theologies built heavily around a few key passages and those passages dominate the theology. The lack of balance is hurtful to the theology.

All truth is good, but many truths have a limited scope of use. This is the great danger with overemphasis.

Truth is called upon to work in areas where it cannot work. It is like choosing to only use a hammer out of a toolkit for every home repair project that comes up.

The Will of God

Often we must live out the will of God in our lives despite the objections of others. There are many voices in our lives.

Many godly people will give us bad advice. It is not that these people are not godly but we as fallen people have a tendency to mindlessly repeat the wisdom we hear in the world or even the church.

Wisdom is specific to a situation. If it was an absolute it would not be wisdom. You see this is the issue with mindlessly repeating wisdom without thinking.

What is frequently true is not always true. There are many unique situations with various dynamics. We should approach situations in life with a desire to think through how to act, not with a preconceived assumption of what the action should be.

One of the great issues in the church is a desire to help without a desire to listen. I have met many godly people who give advice to problems I faced without first trying to understand those problems.

Often the solution given was so trivial you could find it in a million places. They wasted their time attempting to help because they refused to listen.

You see wisdom requires thought and listening. It requires looking at the details of things. If we wish to live well in life we must learn to think biblically and in doing so speak less, think more, listen more, and consider the uniqueness of situations in life as Jesus did.

Postmodernity and the Church

Often the concept of wisdom is lost in the current day. Wisdom implies that many situations in life require thought and prayer to understand ethically.

I believe at times the church is afraid to teach the concept of wisdom which pervades scripture because it feels "post modern" and the church wishes to oppose post modernity.

The reality is that wisdom and the idea that there is a great fuzziness in many situations is not post modern at all. It is not a denial of absolute truth but rather an appreciation that as people who live in a fallen world it is often difficult to know what to do.

You see wisdom and the great need to think long and hard about what is right in many situations is not at all a postmodern impulse. Few churches will overtly bash wisdom, but they will bash the idea that there are many situations which are ethically difficult to understand.

They implicitly undermine the concept of wisdom in scripture by suggesting that ethical living is easy. Often we are more prone to theological error in what we omit from our theology and life than in what is in our theology.

What is missing in a theology is often of far greater significance than what is in a theology. You see theology is supposed to be a faithful understanding of the word of God as revealed in the bible. Thus omissions in theology are often of great concern since theology should attempt to be a faithful understanding of all scripture.

Raising Children

Raising children requires a delicate balance. There are two major errors for parents to avoid.

The first is under raising children. Children in many families are given far too much freedom and far to little wisdom or guidance.

The other error which is more common in the church is over raising children. Parents vastly overestimate their abilities and influence and over control their children.

You see parents wanting a say on every aspect of their children's lives well past the point when input is helpful on certain topics. Parents usually justify such actions saying things like, "as a parent giving advice is my right."

The reality is the issue is not if or if not the parents have a right to always give children unsolicited advice. We have the right to make many poor decisions.

The question is should a parent in general more and more step back from advice giving to their children as their children get older? The answer I believe is clearly, yes.

Many parents destroy or greatly damage their relationship with their older children by refusing to accept them as emerging adults or current adults. As their children start careers and raise their own children parents often refuse to take a back seat.

It is an irony because often many years ago the parents themselves had felt great frustration and tension with their parents who refused to step back. Now they do the same thing and justify their actions as that they know better now and wish to help their children.

Of course the reality is they repeat the error their parents made and use wisdom as an excuse. True wisdom is understanding that children become adults and children who are adults are not clones of their parents.

They have their own ideas on certain issues and reasons for those beliefs. Parents who do not pull back on unsolicited advice to their adult children do not help their children. They simply disrespect their adult children on topics there is disagreement on.

The Limits of Knowledge

Knowledge has limits. There are many things we do not know. It is a sign of wisdom and understanding to acknowledge our limits.

Not only are do we as individuals have limits but mankind has limits. We are not unlimited in our ability to understand. We cannot know the mind of God or many hidden things.

We see often through a glass darkly. We seek knowledge of God but often we must admit our knowledge is partial and incomplete.

We need the humility in life to acknowledge our limits. It is often why we do not know what to pray. We think we know what is right but often we are too limited to see the big picture.

We often ask why God did not respond as we wish, but we should ask why we doubt the wisdom of the eternal all powerful God.

Weighty Matters

Recently I heard a criticism of a head of state/theologian from the past that he sometimes neglected church because of pressing issues. To be fair I am not extremely familiar with the statesman/theologian but the criticism struck me as wrong at least without a fair degree of nuance.

You see if we make a claim that someone has erred because they failed to do this or that sometimes it is simply helpful to look at scripture to see accuracy. You see of course that Jesus was criticized in many ways for something similar that he refused to not work on the Sabbath.

Of course I do not mean to suggest that man should in general work on the Sabbath and minimize the day. Or to suggest that Jesus did not take a theology of Sabbath seriously.

You see there is a need for a priority of things in life. The bible has many commands and many principles. There can be a certain friction at times if we refuse to think.

You see this is why the bible has a constant call to wisdom. It is not that there is anything wrong with the law of God in itself. You see it is the nature of living in a fallen world.

In professional work we always hear a call to prioritize. There are many important things but not all are of the same urgency. But you see we do not see this in much of Christian religion of the current time.

You see wisdom in a sense is a prioritizing of spiritual priorities. You see Jesus understood that the keeping of the Sabbath in a specifically ridged way was not always as important as love.

It is not ideal to work on the Sabbath but often it is right in a certain circumstance. You see we need to always think and allow for a faith which allows wisdom. So much theology is in a box today.

May we have eyes to see that wisdom is needed and a desire to understand the world in a way which requires us to use wisdom. You see we often simplify religion so much that we no longer need wisdom. And we have erred in doing so.

Unconditionally to Love

Love has a great unconditional nature to itself. We are not loved by God because of something in us.

The reason we are loved is always found in God. We cannot see within ourselves the reason God loves us.

We are mired in sin, we have nothing to offer. What have we that God needs?

Such is God one who loves those who are unlovable. We may not see ourselves this way but it is the truth.

We are so far below God not just in degree but quality but he offers love unconditional bought at a great price.

Really the cross is the place were God shows is love in that his son Jesus gave himself for fallen man.

All true love runs downhill from the cross. The cross is the basis for true love.

We love because God first loved us. God loved us for no reason and we should love for no reason also.

We cannot simplify the truth to say we should ignore abuse or ignore how loving others affects us.

The direction of the bible is clear but through is a call for wisdom. There is a time to stand firm in hardship and danger and a time to flee.

Sometimes Paul stood firm in danger and sometimes he fled. Sometimes Jesus confronted error publically and sometimes he spoke about it only more privately with his disciples.

The overall flow of the teaching of scriptures has an absolute nature to it. The details are left to each because each context is unique.

The bible pushes forth the overall specifics of which we are to live and enact in the world. Bu the specifics need to be contextually developed through wisdom.

We are to love the poor and teach others of the glory of being a child of God. But the specifics are left to us since each context is unique and our fulfillment of God’s work will need to be tailored to the context.