"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,"  -1 Peter 3:15

I have gotten to the point in my faith journey where I neither can defend nor want to rehash the Crusades.  I have no good response to questions about the Catholic pedophile scandals, Westboro Baptist or hucksters such as Benny Hinn and Joel Osteen.  I am not an attorney hired by God, nor by His sheep or the goats.  I'm done with the neverending hike on the mobious strip of responding to the mistakes, sins and evils of a Church that knows better, but hasn't always done better.

But listen to me, if you will, as I tell you from  where my hope comes.  

I don't want to debate:

pro-life

pro-choice

pro-Trump

anti-war

anti-guns

anti-vaxxers

anti-maskers

or the anti-Christ

Hope does not come from agreement or disagreement.  But listen to me, if you will, as I tell you from  where my hope comes.

I no longer want to ( nor feel knowledgable enough to) discuss:

fundamentalism

evangelicalism

Calvinism

Armenianism

socialism

mysticism

Penatacostalism

or patriotism

There is no ism for which I care to lose friends, divide my church, or prove my superiority.  But  listen to me, if you will, as I tell you from  where my hope comes.

Don't expect me to have a response to:

the NRA

the GOP

AOC

BLM

LBGTQ

or the good old USA

Acronyms, issues and isms have done nothing for me.  But when I was absolutely, unequivically DONE with myself: discouraged, disappointed,  disgusted, with my-SELF; when I was exhausted with self-righteousness, self-glorification, self-doubt, self-centeredness, self-loathing...

THEN...

the Son of God and man showed me He was ready to just get started.  It is this Jesus - who through His Word showed me He IS the Word from God, of God IS God- is my source of hope.

And if that is the topic you want to ask about, let me put on a pot of coffee or open a bottle of wine, and I'll talk with you all night long.