My early spiritual life was full of many doubts about the goodness of God. The God I first learned about was a wrathful God, characterized by a desire to punish those who did wrong. My faith was consumed with avoiding the punishment of an angry God. I was scared to death of God, scared to know or be known by God.

This characterization of God traumatized me, and I may always be recovering from this way of viewing things. But I have come to understand the true nature of God is seen in the self-giving love of Christ. That realization, coming to understand the nature and character of a loving and living Jesus as the incarnation of a living and loving God, has changed my life...and saved it.