Holiday Gratitude Day 23

Today I’m grateful for an amazingly random pastoral conversation with a stranger, a young white Aussie man trying to find his way in the midst of huge obstacles. I’m grateful for his honestly, his courage, his conviction, his conscience, his informal confession, his willingness to risk everything for his friends, for his fighting spirit, his gratitude, his search for identity away from disfunction, and the way he reminded me of the immense societal and cultural challenges that human beings around the world face, the reminder to me of the imprisoned, the lonely, the desperate, and the outcast. Thanks be to you, fellow traveller: you have reminded me that the search for humility lies is cruciform, the search for transformation lies beyond the shadows, and the search for reconciliation starts with each other in active, participant-rich community.