Gungor: “When did Christianity become a way of medicating us from pain rather than a way of living within the pain? 

Yes, the resurrection of Jesus gives us a hope, a future joy for which we are inspired to take up our cross and take another step forward… But that is not the same thing as a numbing delusion that all is well with the world because ‘I’m on my way to Heaven because of the new covenant!’

There is a tension to the Kingdom of Heaven that is here but not yet here. That tension ought to give way to poetry. To lament. To art. Sure, there is room for some celebration, but if our faith has nothing else to it than positive messages and encouraging clichés, perhaps it has become a Band-Aid rather than a surgery. ”

(Via chris.)

Here’s a followup to the hygiene post.

I think we all just need a bit of real sometimes.