We think status, heritage, and credentials make us a somebody or a nobody, yet those are not what God values. In Matthew 8 a Gentile centurion—nobody by race—approaches Jesus with a suffering servant, forcing the question of what actually makes anyone able to approach God’s kingdom.

We want hope, but we want to know it isn’t empty—especially when other powers seem to have the final say over our lives. In Ephesians 1:20–21, Paul points to God raising Jesus from the dead and seating him above every rule and authority, but do we live as if we believe that?

Changing the world for God can sound easier than loving the people close enough to frustrate us. But that’s precisely what God calls us to by calling us to honor the first “neighbors” we’ll ever know: our parents.

There’s a pull in all of us to take the kind of strength the world respects—talk tough, take no prisoners, own the other side—and call that faithfulness. Does the way we fight for truth actually looks anything like Jesus?