As we look back on a challenging year and look ahead to a new one, remember this: Live by your thirst to make a difference. Don’t give up, or give in. You are an agent of hope.

Walls look magnificent; they may make us feel secure. But they shrivel our souls, they delude us, and they make our world small.

I probably should not be as disappointed in “Wicked: For Good” as I am, but when a film self-consciously seeks to speak about our modern-day context, I want it to give us creative ways to extricate ourselves from authoritarianism.

American Christians need to stand with our Georgian kin who are suffering injustice at the hands of the Georgian government, just as the apostolic women stood with the Lord Jesus as he suffered injustice at the hands of the Roman government.

Perhaps, rather than straining to recreate the Christmases we remember — or the ones we see in commercials, movies, and perfect photos — we try looking for the holy in what is real.