During that summer, Ben showed me what it looks like to relativize differences in order to love each other in sacrificial ways. As a member of the family of God, Ben uniquely demonstrates the character of Jesus. Ben is essential to me, and I would never have recognized this if I had forever cast him as Wrong Christian. This revelation about Ben makes me wonder if our understanding of Jesus (and by extension, our role as his followers) is limited by our inability to see him represented in the diversity of the body of Christ. I wonder how much Christ’s heart is broken when we denigrate followers
...more
