Welcome to The Light, your quiet hour of reflection.
After thirty one years of shepherding one of America's largest congregations, Andy Stanley has announced he will step down as senior pastor of North Point Ministries. It is a moment that invites us to sit with what it means to build something, to pour a life into it, and then to release it with open hands.
From Georgia we turn to Ecuador, where a wooden crucifix fell from the wall of a church in Guayaquil during a livestreamed mass, striking and killing Father Patricio Alfredo Sánchez Molinari as he prayed. The image is almost unbearable in its weight — a man at prayer, undone by the very symbol of his faith. Mystery does not always arrive gently.
And in Colombia, a pastor in Cartagena was beaten to death by members of the very gang he had been quietly, persistently trying to reach with grace. He refused to hand over his motorcycle. He paid with his life. There is something ancient and aching in that story — the cost of crossing toward the dangerous edge of love.
That is this hour's reflection. Carry the light gently.
