Mark Whittall

There are moments that are life-changing. Moments in our lives that change everything. Think about the moments that you’ve experienced. Maybe it was when you saw your future partner across a crowded room and it was love at first sight. Maybe it was the birth of your child or grandchild. There is nothing theoretical, nothing abstract about these moments. They’re real. They happen right here and now, in a particular time and place. They move us, they etch themselves in our

We don’t read Matthew’s version of the Christmas story very often. Maybe that’s because Matthew’s account, told from the perspective of Joseph, is just too painful. There are no shepherds, no singing angels, no Bethlehem, no manger, no swaddling clothes. Instead we hear this story of ordinary human pain and suffering. The young man who finds out that his young fiancé is pregnant with a child that is not his. The young woman who bears the weight of shame and fear, who faces a

Expectations. What do you think, good or bad? Expectations can be a good thing. Expectations hold out hope for the future. They give us a sense of direction, a vision of what lies before us. But expectations can also be a burden. Especially when they’re laid on us. When they’re not where we want to go. When we feel that we have to live up to someone else’s expectations. When we’re struggling to live up to our own expectations. So imagine what it would have been like to