a revelatory cliché

the devil is in the details. that's what they say and i don't feel a pressing need to refute them.

however, i am beginning to believe that the opposite is also true: the gospel is also in the details. this assertion seems pretty clear in Jesus' teaching, where he warns that denouncing a person as a fool can lead you down the highway to hell and extending a cup of water to the thirsty is a way of lavishing love upon Christ.

but while this assertion is clear in Jesus' ministry, i confess that it has not been clear in my life. over the past two years i have let many of the details of gospel ministry slip through the cracks. i have written few encouraging notes, followed up on few former members and visitors and have rejected far more calls than i have accepted--leaving many stories untold, sins unconfessed and a congregation which has been deprived of the love of listening.

i repent of my indifference to the details. for it seems to me that it is in the details that the gospel lives, moves and has its being.