Don't Be Fooled

Don’t Be Fooled

Life in Exile: Part 5
Daniel 6
October 4, 2026

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As a result, the other officers and the chief administrators tried to find some problem with Daniel’s work for the kingdom. But they couldn’t find any problem or corruption at all because Daniel was trustworthy. He wasn’t guilty of any negligence or corruption.

So these men said, “We won’t find any fault in Daniel, unless we can find something to use against him from his religious practice.”

~ Daniel 6:4-5

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Craig J. Sefa Don't Be Fooled

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New empire. New king. Same old problems.

It’s interesting how no matter who is in office, we always seem to put a lot of weight on the next election to fix all our nation’s problems, and when that doesn’t work, we look ahead to the next. The succession from Nebuchadnezzar and his son in Babylon to Darius in the new Persian empire reminds us that it doesn’t really matter who is in charge or which side they serve, the same patterns keep showing up.

Daniel 6 is almost a repeat of Daniel 3, now under new management. Royal advisers threatened by Daniel’s position and wisdom, a king manipulated into a decree he never wanted, and a public spectacle to make an example of anyone who doesn’t fall in line. All we’ve really done is switch out the fiery furnace for a den of lions.

Daniel had served God faithfully under multiple kings, and he wasn’t about to stop now. When the decree was passed to pray to no one but the king, Daniel didn’t even bother to close his window during prayer so he wouldn’t be seen. His prayer life had become so much a part of his routine it never even occurred to him to change it up or try to be a bit more subtle about it.

What if this is less a story about yet another instance of God rescuing Daniel, and more about a lifetime of faithfulness regardless of the circumstances? It makes us ask what kind of spiritual practices we have built into our lives that are so natural and automatic that we wouldn’t break our rhythm even if our lives were on the line.

It’s easy to pray when we need something or when we’re having a hard time, but for Daniel, being in communion with God was as much a part of his daily rhythm as a cup of coffee or an evening walk might be for us. Perhaps we are seeing a glimpse of what Jesus meant when he said to abide in him, to stay connected to the vine.

Weekly Practice: Keep the Window Open

This week, protect one ordinary practice that keeps you honest with God: a few minutes of prayer, a walk, a Sunday you show up even when it’s inconvenient. Don’t hide it and don’t make a show of it either. Just keep doing it, especially on the day it would be easier not to.

Written on the Wall

Written on the Wall

Life in Exile: Part 4
Daniel 4-5
September 27, 2026

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They drank a lot of wine; and they praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Right then the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the king’s palace wall in the light of the lamp. The king saw the hand that wrote.

~ Daniel 5:4-5

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Craig J. Sefa Written on the Wall

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By the time we get to chapters 4-5, Nebuchadnezzar has seen God at work on numerous occasions and, quite frankly, he’s found Daniel and his friends pretty useful to have around with this God on their side. The king is blessed by God’s presence, but at the end of the day, he’s still in control. He views the God of his servants as one who serves him as well.

God gives him one more dream, that he has become a great and strong tree, but his reign is not assured. The tree will be cut down. It seems to be a wakeup call, and the king praises God. But in chapter 5, his son Belshazzar falls back into the old ways, worshiping the gods of gold and silver and using the vessels of Israel’s God to worship his own gods just as his father had once done.

Immediately, a human finger appears and writes a visible warning on the wall. Some theologians have used the phrase, “finger of God” as a description for the Holy Spirit. It’s no longer a secret vision hidden in the king’s dreams, but a vision for all to see. Daniel interprets the writing, declaring that the king’s days have been numbered, that his deeds have been found wanting, and that his kingdom would be divided and distributed among the Persians. That very night, the king is killed.

We often wish that God’s will seemed more clear, as though it were literally written on the wall. But Belshazzar had completely ignored the lessons his father had learned. No matter how directly God’s will was revealed, he was determined to be in full control of his own life, not second to any god, especially the God of the people his kingdom had conquered.

Todd Agnew writes a song about this particular story that says:

You sent them dreams and visions and Daniel to figure them out. They’d listen for a moment and obey for an instant, and then they’d go their own way but I wouldn’t know about that.

In case you didn’t catch it, that last line is a bit of sarcasm. Who among us doesn’t know what it’s like to have had a clear sense of how God wants us to respond, and done our own thing anyway. In Luke 16:31, Jesus tells a parable in which Abraham warns that if people won’t listen to Moses or the prophets and they would not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead. These words are also prophetic, and perhaps even more applicable today than we might like to admit.

Weekly Practice: Read it Honestly

This week, notice one thing you already suspect is true but have been avoiding, a habit, a conversation, a decision, and let yourself actually look at it. You don’t have to fix it today. Just stop pretending you don’t see it.

The Cost of Faithfulness

The Cost of Faithfulness

Life in Exile: Part 3
Daniel 3
September 20, 2026

The herald proclaimed loudly: “Peoples, nations, and languages! This is what you must do: When you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, zither, lyre, harp, flute, and every kind of instrument, you must bow down and worship the gold statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Anyone who will not bow down and worship will be immediately thrown into a furnace of flaming fire.”…

… If our God—the one we serve—is able to rescue us from the furnace of flaming fire and from your power, Your Majesty, then let him rescue us. But if he doesn’t, know this for certain, Your Majesty: we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you’ve set up.”

~ Daniel 3:4-6, 17-18

Craig J. Sefa The Cost of Faithfulness

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This week we turn to the famous story of Daniel’s friends in the fiery furnace. Many Christians interpret the fourth man in the fire as Jesus himself, and they use this passage as evidence that God will save them when they stand up for their faith. Taken in isolation, it almost makes sense, but given the long history of actual martyrdom in the Christian tradition, using this story to guarantee divine protection seems a bit short-sighted.

This text doesn’t promise a good outcome when we feel persecuted, but there are at least two other applications worth considering.

First, the question of loyalty tests. In verse 8, an elite group of the king’s advisers called the Chaldeans seized their chance to attack the Jews. This was not a matter of religious persecution by the government. Nebuchadnezzar highly valued Daniel and his friends and even came to respect their faith as we saw in chapter 1. This was a particular group of powerful individuals who felt threatened and manipulated the situation to trap their opponents. Until now, loyalty to the king and loyalty to God were not in conflict, but the Chaldeans created a religious conflict that would put the king in a no-win situation. It reminds us that it is possible to love both God and country. But there are always those who will see that coexistence and mutual flourishing as a threat to their own religious or political power and who will demand absolute loyalty to one side or the other for their own personal gain.

Secondly, what if God doesn’t actually save us from the fire? In verse 18, we see that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are not so certain themselves. They express genuine hope and faith in God’s provision, but they also make it clear that their worship and loyalty to God is not dependent on the outcome. Even if God does not rescue them, they remain faithful. It raises an important question for us about our own faithfulness. Do we worship and follow God because we want God’s provisions, or do we continue to trust even when the outcome is nowhere close to what we had hoped?

Weekly Practice: Stand Anyway

This week, name one place where doing the right thing might not turn out well, and do it anyway. It might be a hard conversation, an honest answer, a boundary you’ve been avoiding. You don’t need the outcome to be certain. You only need to be faithful in it.

The Eternal Kingdom

The Eternal Kingdom

Life in Exile: Part 2
Daniel 2
September 13, 2026

But in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will raise up an everlasting kingdom that will be indestructible. Its rule will never pass to another people. It will shatter other kingdoms. It will put an end to all of them. It will stand firm forever.

~ Daniel 2:44

Craig J. Sefa The Eternal Kingdom

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Daniel has earned the respect of Babylon’s king, and like Joseph in Egypt, he is also given the gift of interpreting dreams. In Daniel 2, the king is deeply troubled by a dream of a great statue built upon a crumbling foundation. None of his sages can discern the meaning. The king is enraged and orders them all put to death.

Miraculously, God reveals the dream to Daniel, who in turn shares the interpretation with the king. Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom is the gold head of the statue, but it will be followed by many more kingdoms, each weaker than the last, like the descending metals of the statue in the king’s dream. Eventually, every earthly kingdom will become like chaff, brushed away by the wind, and only the everlasting kingdom of God will remain.

It would be easy for a king to dismiss such an interpretation and kill the one who had the audacity to bring such tragic news before his throne. After all, rulers then and now are not known for responding well to things they do not want to hear. But Nebuchadnezzar is so impressed with Daniel’s clarity, boldness, and honesty that he responds with uncharacteristic humility and elevates the position of Daniel and his friends in the empire.

What I find more interesting, however, is why no one else was able to interpret the dream. Yes, we could simply say that it’s because God revealed the interpretation to Daniel and no one else in order to raise him up to a place of greater influence. But I wonder if there is an even broader truth at play here that still haunts humanity today.

Understanding the dream depended on acknowledging something nobody wants to admit, our own mortality and the idea that what we build in this life will not always last. What if they could not interpret the dream because they could not possibly imagine a day when Nebuchadnezzar’s name would not be at the center of the known world? And even if they could, who would dare tell him? After all, a ruler’s ego is often quite fragile. But we don’t need a throne to share that fragility.

And what of us? What do we do with the knowledge that generation by generation, more and more of our memory and our legacy fades into the dust? How do we trust God with a future beyond ourselves that we cannot influence or maintain? Given our finite lives, what is really worth investing in today, while we are still here?

Weekly Practice: Build Something That Will Last

This week, spend fifteen minutes on something that won’t show results for years: a note to someone who shaped you, real conversation with your kid, a habit you keep even when no one’s watching. Nothing about it will feel urgent. That’s the point.

We Are What We Eat

We Are What We Eat

Life in Exile: Part 1
Daniel 1
September 6, 2026

Daniel decided that he wouldn’t pollute himself with the king’s rations or the royal wine, and he appealed to the chief official in hopes that he wouldn’t have to do so…

… At the end of ten days they looked better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food.

~ Daniel 1:8, 15

Craig J. Sefa We Are What We Eat

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Daniel rested calmly in the lion’s den. His friends stood safely in a fiery furnace. God protected them because they remained faithful to God and refused to worship the idols of Babylon’s king. We know the stories, but we also know that life doesn’t always work out so perfectly, no matter how faithful we are to God.

What if these ancient hero stories are less about a promise that everything will go our way if we have enough faith, and a lot more about what it looks like to remain faithful even when there is no guarantee of a positive outcome at all?

Over the next several weeks, we’ll be walking through the heroic accounts of Daniel and his friends. In many ways Daniel is the new Joseph, a faithful servant of God functioning as an ambassador at the highest levels of power. Joseph in Egypt. Daniel in Babylon. As with Joseph, things don’t always go Daniel’s way. There are plenty of times it seems all is lost. Though things worked out well for them in the end, God never promised they would. Their faithfulness, like Joseph’s, is not about cutting a deal with God to protect them if they obey. It flows out of an authentic love for God and a deep trust that goes beyond the outcomes.

This week we begin with Daniel’s refusal to eat the king’s royal food. We are not told explicitly what the problem with the food is. Some suggest it could be connected to Jewish dietary codes. Others say it is simply that Daniel is acknowledging God, not the king of Babylon, as his source of life-giving sustenance. Daniel has already accepted the Babylonian name and the high position the king gave him to serve as an ambassador between the empire and the exile community. He is following Jeremiah’s prophetic call to be a blessing in the place where they are sent, to work for the flourishing of both Israel and Babylon together (Jeremiah 29). But he draws the line on what he consumes from the king’s table.

Dietary distinctions are not a primary concern for modern day Christians, but there are still significant questions about what we consume and who is the source. Mostly we consume material goods and information, but not all of it comes from a good place. The production of certain products may cause harm to vulnerable populations. The information fed to us from places of wealth and power may poison our minds, our hearts, and our souls.

What are we willing to risk to push the plate away and refuse the steady diet of lies, corruption, abuse, greed, and fear, among so many other toxic items on the royal buffet of our own day?

Weekly Practice: Watch What You’re Fed

This week, pick one thing you consume without thinking, (a feed, a show, a habit, etc.) and ask honestly what it’s actually feeding in you. You don’t have to give it up. Just notice, and choose one meal this week, literal or otherwise, that you take in on purpose instead.

Don't Overthink It

Don't Overthink It

Made for More: Part 3
Ecclesiastes 11-12
August 30, 2026

Remember your creator in your prime, before the days of trouble arrive, and those years, about which you’ll say, “I take no pleasure in these”...

... So this is the end of the matter; all has been heard. Worship God and keep God’s commandments because this is what everyone must do.

~ Ecclesiastes 12:1, 13

Craig J. Sefa Don't Overthink It

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As we wrap up our series on meaning and purpose, the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us that it is far simpler than we tend to make it. “Worship God and keep God’s commandments because this is what everyone must do.”

Another way to put it might be: “Love God, Love Neighbor.”

Or even more simply: “Love, and do what you will.”

Listen to the full sermon above and take some time to slowly meditate on the two short readings below, asking the question, “What is one next step God is inviting me to take right now?”

Pause. Listen. Respond.

Do It Anyway

By Dr. Ken M. Keith, written on the wall at Mother Teresa’s Home for Children in Calcutta

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight.
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
Give the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis it is between you and God;
it was never between you and them anyway.

Love and Do What You Will

Saint Augustine of Hippo

If you keep silent, keep silent by love:
if you speak, speak by love;
if you correct, correct by love;
if you pardon, pardon by love;
let love be rooted in you,
and from the root nothing but good can grow.
Love and do what you will.

Practice: Do It Anyway

Choose one small act of love this week that has no guarantee of fixing anything. Done not because it will resolve the darkness, but because it’s what faithfulness looks like inside it.

Connected and Alone

Connected and Alone

Made for More: Part 2
August 23, 2026

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their hard work. If either should fall, one can pick up the

other. But how miserable are those who fall and don’t have a

companion to help them up! Also, if two lie down together, they can stay warm. But how can anyone stay warm alone? Also, one can be overpowered, but two together can put up resistance. A three-ply cord doesn’t easily snap.

~ Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

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Craig J. Sefa Connected & Alone

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The writer of Ecclesiastes observes the futility of working hard without end only for ourselves and never being satisfied. It would seem human nature has not changed all that much over the past few millenia.

The problem is not hard work, but the endless nature of our work and our inability to be content. If we were asked what was more important between our family and friends or our work, most of us would say our relationships matter more. But if we take an honest look at our calendar and the amount of physical and mental energy we spend, work would win out almost every time.

All the way back in the Garden we find God saying that it is not good for humans to be alone. Yet we find ourselves so often toiling away in isolation, longing for genuine community and companionship but always feeling like we don’t have the time or energy to invest in the people who matter most to us.

Thomas Carter describes the same crisis of meaning in our day that the wisdom teacher in scripture observes in his. He writes:

The deeper issue is that modern society has become extraordinarily effective at explaining how things work while becoming increasingly uncertain about why they matter. Science reveals mechanisms. Technology expands power. Psychology analyzes behavior. Each contributes something valuable. Yet none fully answers the question of purpose. None tells us what kind of life is worth living. None explains why beauty moves us, why love matters, why sacrifice is noble, or why truth is worth pursuing.

As a result, many people live within a vast vacuum of meaning. They possess unprecedented access to information but little wisdom. They enjoy remarkable comforts yet experience profound dissatisfaction. They are connected to thousands through technology yet feel deeply alone. They can commnicate instantly across continents while remaining strangers to themselves. The result is drift. People drift from church. And prayer. And reflection.

Life becomes a sequence of distractions interrupted by occasional moments of anxiety. Entertainment replaces contemplation. Consumption replaces vocation. Busyness replaces meaning. The soul becomes restless without fully understanding why.

Our crisis of meaning, then and now, does not come from a lack of belief, but from a lack of presence. We are starving for connection with God, with one another, and even with our true selves. If you want to do something that matters, start by simply showing up for someone else. Being present makes all the difference.

Practice: Life Together

This week, name one person you’re living for, whether they know it or not, and one person who might be walking a similar road as you. Reach out to one of them. Call. Visit. Share a meal. Simply enjoy being together.

Chasing After the Wind

Chasing After the Wind

Made for More: Part 1
Ecclesiastes 1-2
August 16, 2026

When I observed all that happens under the sun, I realized that everything is pointless, a chasing after wind.

~ Ecclesiastes 1:14

Craig J. Sefa Chasing After the Wind

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adapted from an article by Joe Boyd

For many of us, we were taught that Christianity is mostly about preparing to leave earth someday. This world was temporary. Broken. Fallen. Real life was lived later, not now.

As we grow, we sometimes realize that we never fully learned how to simply be alive here. How to enjoy ordinary life without guilt. How to experience wonder without needing certainty attached to it. How to love this world instead of merely enduring it. And that creates a real psychological crisis.

If your purpose is mostly tied to “what happens next,” it can sometimes make life in this world feel pointless.

But here’s the truth. Nobody knows with certainty what waits for us beyond the grave. This life is all we know for sure. Your mere existence is nothing short of a miracle. Today is actually part of eternity.

So, what’s the point of living?

This is the ultimate question of humanity. The real question we are asking isn’t so much, “What is the meaning of life?” but rather, “How do I move on when I realize what I thought was the meaning of life no longer feels certain?”

We all go through seasons in life where our purpose feels unclear. But here is the bigger truth beyond our fears, insecurities, and feelings of uncertainty. All these questions that now seem unresolved were always there.

We just ignored them or reframed them because we chose to believe we had all the answers. But we didn’t. Nobody has all the answers. Nobody ever will.

Nothing at all has changed except the story you were telling yourself.

Well, one thing has changed.

You have.

You’ve grown older. Wiser. More experienced. More alert. More attentive. More curious. You’ve broadened your scope. Set your eyes higher on the horizon. You’ve dared to admit you don’t have all the answers. You haven’t done anything wrong. You did the most natural thing anyone can ever do.

You were born again.

Being born again is just as disorienting and scary and painful and emotional as it was the first time you were born. You just don’t remember your physical birth. None of us remember our first birth because it was too traumatic.

But now you’re ready. You can handle it. You can be born again. And this time you get to remember it.

Birth is always disorienting. Learning to breathe in a larger world takes time. Asking “why?” is a natural part of growing up. Becoming more aware of these impossible questions may just mean you’re finally beginning to live.

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Practice:

Pay attention to the little gifts that make life worth living. Each evening this week, before sleep, pause and ask one question. Not “what did I accomplish,” but “what did I actually receive today.” A conversation. A meal. The beauty of an ordinary moment that you noticed.

Offer a prayer of gratitude for this gift.

Freedom to Love

Freedom to Love

Freedom: Part 5
August 2, 2026

Galatians 6:1-18

Let’s not get tired of doing good, because in time, we’ll have a harvest if we don’t give up. So then, let’s work for the good of all whenever we have an opportunity, and especially for those in the household of faith.

~ Galatians 6:9-10

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Craig J. Sefa Freedom to Love

As Paul concludes his letter to the Galatians, he brings his argument full circle by asking what this freedom looks like when it is lived out in real Christian community?

In 6:2 and 6:5, he seems to contradict himself. “Bear one another’s burdens,” and yet “each one must carry their own load.” Paul is showing us what life in community looks like. Each person is responsible for their own growth and maturity, yet no one is meant to carry that weight alone. We are called to accountability without judgment and mutual support without dependence. This kind of freedom is both harder and more honest than either pure self-reliance or absolute dependence. This is what community looks like when it is rooted in Christ’s love.

Father Greg Boyle is a Jesuit priest, was assigned in 1986 to Dolores Mission Parish in Los Angeles, then the poorest parish in the city with the highest concentration of gang activity. Early in his ministry, he buried over 200 people killed by gang violence.

He came to see that the deepest issue was not the gangs, but the absence of kinship; the kind of belonging Paul calls “the new creation.” Young people were not lacking programs or charity; they were lacking family. They needed somebody to stand with them. Instead of asking what he could do for them, Boyle simply asked, “Can I be with you?”

Being with people in that environment is risky. Father Boyle has been shot at numerous times and has sat with young men on death row knowing he could not save their lives. Through it all, he has truly been present with the people.

His ministry, Homeboy Industries, now serves over 10,000 former gang members and previously incarcerated people annually. It is built on the belief that every person is “unshakably good - no exceptions. We belong to each other - with no exceptions.”

Former enemies work side by side. He did not ask them to like each other or even to forgive each other before they started. He simply asked them to work. And in working together, a new community was formed, a lived expression of the “new creation”.

Paul’s vision is not the individual freedom to do what we want. It is the freedom of being family to-gether, bearing one another’s burdens, enduring hardship, and sharing the fruit of the Spirit for the sake of the world.

In that life together, old markers of identity and worth lose their power. What remains is a communi-ty held together by grace.

Practice: This week, show up for someone.

Think of one person in your life who is carrying something heavy right now. Do not try to fix it. Just show up, a text, a phone call, a meal, a visit. Simply be present with them in it. Notice what it costs you and how much it matters to them.

Freedom to Grow

Freedom to Grow

Freedom: Part 4
July 26, 2026

Galatians 5:2-26

You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only don’t let this freedom be an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses but serve each other through love. All the Law has been fulfilled in a single statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour each other, be careful that you don’t get eaten up by each other!

~ Galatians 5:13-15

Craig J. Sefa Freedom to Grow

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After slavery ended, plantation owners used sharecropping to maintain their labor force. Landowners still controlled the houses, determined how much of the harvest workers received, and could take everything away if someone stepped out of line. The legal status had changed, but many sharecroppers remained trapped in conditions not much different than slavery.

Fannie Lou Hamer was born in 1917 to a sharecropping family in Mississippi, the youngest of twenty children. She picked cotton from the age of six and received only a sixth-grade education, the highest level allowed for Black children. In 1962, at age forty-four, she discovered that as an American citizen she had the legal right to vote. The system had intentionally kept that knowledge from her.

When she tried to register, she failed the literacy test designed to disqualify Black applicants. Although her application was denied, her landlord found out and threatened to evict her if she did not withdraw it. In a single night, her family lost their home and their livelihood.

Over the next several years, she was shot at, her home was attacked, and she was arrested while returning from a voter registration workshop. In jail, she was beaten so badly that she suffered permanent kidney damage and a blood clot behind one eye. The system was determined to make an example of her.

Hamer later helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the all-white state delegation. She also established the Freedom Farm Cooperative, a 680-acre plot of land where former sharecroppers could own land together without fear of eviction.

Fannie Lou spent much of her life possessing freedoms she never knew she had. Despite her legal rights, she still lived like a slave.

Similarly, the Galatians were free in Christ but continued living as slaves to the old system. They argued over which laws still applied and, as Paul says, they “bit and devoured one another” over their disagreements. Their community became marked by jealousy, division, rivalry and conflict. Instead of living into their freedom, they turned against one another.

Hamer’s story reminds us how systems of power are designed to keep people fearful, divided, and struggling just to survive. Yet even in this hardened soil of struggle and oppression, the Spirit produces the good fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Christian freedom is not the freedom to win, to dominate, or to protect ourselves. It is the freedom to love our neighbors and to serve one another.

Practice: This week, choose the harder question.

When you encounter a difficult issue, in the news, in a conversation, or in your own thinking, resist the urge to reach for the quick answer. Sit with it for a day before deciding what you think. Ask yourself what you might be missing and whose perspective you have not yet considered.