“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

What? I thought as the whole story illuminated my soul. Deep within me, I sensed my heavenly Father’s laughter—as though He plays the long game. We are rich in love.

I ran inside to find my wife and read the whole story. She grinned like she does when she’s right. It’s stunning…

Every thought, every experience, every heartbeat was a display of mutual, self-giving, other-centered love—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit walking as One. Jesus lived every moment immersed in the lavish surrender of perfect love and the liberty of consent—sure in His Father, confident in the Holy Spirit.

The way Jason approaches the question of control reminds me of the poem by Emily Dickinson titled “Tell All The Truth, But Tell It Slant.” Dickinson says that “we should tell the truth —the whole truth—but tell it indirectly, in a circuitous and round-the-houses fashion. The truth,” she says, “is too bright and dazzling for us to be able to cope with it in one go. We have to be overwhelmed by it.”

The difference between an honest question and entrapment is the spirit in which it’s asked. When Grace is the spirit, the question confronts for the purpose of repentance, transformation, and restoration. When Law is the spirit, the question condemns for the purpose of separation and retribution.

After Ananias and Sapphira were greeted in heaven by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, after being immersed in an atmosphere of grace and love, after their punishing religious obsession with good and evil was exposed, and self-righteous striving had ceased, in the freedom of consent, as they celebrated union, and as the band took a quick five, Jesus leaned over and with a heavenly grin, said, “Sorry about Pete. I told him to ‘feed my sheep,’ and he’s doing a brilliant job of it—most days. But occasionally, he still stumbles over the punishing lie of separation and forgets reconciling love. And when that happens,” Jesus chuckled as He opened His arms, recognizing their participation in the sweet by and by, “well, you know.”

Then Jesus gave a good-natured wink, “At least he didn’t use a sword this time.”

For nearly a decade, when it came to what the early church believed, Gentiles were out. Then suddenly, Peter discovered what was always true, the Truth that set him free: there is no us or them, no, in or out when it comes to our Heavenly Father and His kids. Peter discovered what Paul later wrote about in Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

…It’s nearly impossible, but imagine a church interpreting Scripture to reveal Jesus as the Savior of a select group, a people who looked, believed, and acted like them—as though atonement was somehow, limited…Imagine they interpreted Scripture in ways that separated Gentiles from Jews, in from out, and women from ministry…

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye…” An eye for an eye is a phrase you can find throughout Scripture. It’s a phrase often used to define justice today, but there are two ways to interpret it. We, in the West, tend to interpret the phrase punitively—through the lens of a God who punishes.

When I use the word good to describe God, I am not communicating subjectively. I’m not making “a god to my own liking,” as offended brothers and sisters have occasionally suggested. My subjective thoughts don’t get a say in how Jesus defined the word, and Jesus is the revelation of what good means.

There’s nothing safe about a retributive view of God; there’s nothing safe about a God who uses a gun.