What might the world be like if each of us made an effort to be swift to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger and respect the rights of others to think what they think? The call is not to agree with others necessarily or to believe what others believe but simply to learn about or from the other, understand the other, value the other and respect the other.

If we truly believe and take seriously the words of Jesus whom we call “the Christ,”  then we, too, must see children not as “a stage of life” growing out of silliness into adulthood but a reality of living.

Rather than dividing into two camps along a theological fault line of conservative and liberal or personal and communitarian, evangelicals are called to straddle the two, bringing the complete good news that Jesus came to save us not only from our sinful condition, but to bring heaven’s shalom to a broken world.

A kingdom business works to build the kingdom of God with its multiple bottom lines. Most businesses have a single bottom line: profit. A kingdom business works to make a profit while looking for holistic community transformation.

Let us remember that there is a winsome and loving way to discuss our pro-life convictions and respond to these objections, and let us seek concrete ways to live out our pro-life convictions in our communities, even as we contend for them in the public square.

As we consider a new year with its implications of trying to create a new and better self, what if we shifted our focus from expectations that we have of self-fulfillment to expectations of expansion of our own personal capabilities, coupled with greater expectations placed in God?