Ben's New Year confession: grace you don't deserve
Ben delivers his New Year confession in the first person: listing his job, his marriage, the radio program, his pastorate, and fatherhood, he says that held to the strict standard of any of them he would lose all of it — "I don't deserve to keep my job," "I deserve to be fired." What struck him two to three weeks ago was not that he's imperfect (he always agreed to that on paper) but the tangible sense that everything he loves could justifiably be taken from him, which made God's grace feel touchable — "the opposite of It's a Wonderful Life." The point is gratitude, not self-loathing: recognizing how much mercy he's collecting from God, his wife, his coworkers, and the fellows in the room instead of presuming upon it.
More on Grace
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Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
- Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
A host asks whether following Jesus should feel more comfortable as time goes on — noting the low-level tension many feel around am-I-doing-enough and the stigma that contentment equals laziness.
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Dear LFTP: the friend group's new wife
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A host reads a second Dear LFTP letter: ten college-friend couples are planning a once-in-a-lifetime cruise, and nobody wants the remarried friend's demanding new wife on the ship.
From No. 592 · Because I Got High
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Dear LFTP: the $600 lawnmower and buying them a mower
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Mike reads a letter from someone who gave a nephew's wife $600 for a self-propelled lawnmower; she spent it, never bought the mower, and now avoids them.
From No. 587 · Coffee After Sunday
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Dear LFTP: the $900 couch letter
- My best friend and her son (about a thousand pounds combined) cracked my new $900 couch and want to bring more family over — what do I do?
Mike reads the second letter (same anchor/merge note): the writer bought a new house and a $900 couch; her best friend and the friend's son — 'about a thousand pounds' combined — audibly cracked it and now want to bring more family.