Kezek came out of his room early this morning while I was preparing a sermon before he was really ready to wake up. I held him until he went back to sleep. As I was looking down at him, already lamenting the fact that I would not always be able to look down at him in this way, I was suddenly overcome with a surprising sense of my own hypocrisy, because I was confronted with the reality about what I was planning to say…

Preaching about suffering is not difficult, because the Gospel speaks of a suffering God who ends all suffering.

Preaching about judgment is not difficult, because the Gospel speaks of a crucified God who absorbs all judgment.

Preaching about repentance is not difficult, because the Gospel speaks on behalf of the God whose summons to repentance is a summons to grace.

In light of the Gospel, there is really only one thing in this world that is difficult to preach about. It is the goodness of God, because the goodness of God always comes as a summons for us to trust him entirely with our lives and with the lives of our loved ones more than we trust ourselves.

And there is nothing more difficult, or more necessary, than that.

“I believe but help my unbelief” (Mk. 9:24).