Christian faith, which is at its heart about self-giving—God's self-giving and human self-giving—and not about self-imposing.

According to Jesus, what I think about him and how I respond will determine my destiny for all eternity.

Jesus did not eliminate evil; he revealed a God willing, at immense cost, to forgive it and to heal its damage.

only love can summon a response of love, which is the one thing God wants from us and the reason he created us.

God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love, said Augustine.

If I take Easter as the starting point, the one incontrovertible fact about how God treats those whom he loves, then human history becomes the contradiction and Easter a preview of ultimate reality.

All through the Bible, especially in the Prophets, we see a conflict raging within God. On the one hand God passionately loved the people he had made; on the other hand, God had a terrible urge to destroy the evil that enslaved them. On the cross, God resolved that inner conflict, for there God's Son absorbed the destructive force and transformed it into love. Disappointment with God

The deepest longings we feel on earth, as parents, as lovers, are mere flickers of the hungering desire God feels for us. It is a desire that cost him the Incarnation and the Crucifixion.

Because of Jesus we need never question God's desire for intimacy. Does God really want close contact with us? Jesus gave up Heaven for it.

The essence of Christian faith has come to us in story form, the story of a God who will go to any lengths to get his family back.

Love, too, is why I believe. At the end of life, what else matters?

Imposition stands starkly at odds with the basic character of the Christian faith, which is at its heart about self-giving—God's self-giving and human self-giving—and not about self-imposing.