Have you ever heard of “disability art”? Neither had I. Sue Austin is an artist, a performance artist, to be precise. And she is disabled, confined to a wheel chair. Except that she won’t allow it be confining. Actually, that’s not quite right. It’s not so much that the goal of her art is to transcend her wheelchair, but to repurpose it. To actually make use of it to see – and help us to see – the world differently. It’s a striking idea. That while one can certainly approach challenge, hardship, suffering, and disability as things to be resisted, overcome, and transcended, those aren’t the only options. Another valid...

Vulnerability is a big theme with me – in life, in relationships, in theology. It’s one of the reasons I’m such a big fan of Brené Brown. In her TED Talks on vulnerability and shame, and in books like Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection, she writes candidly and movingly about the importance of being vulnerable and the challenges to doing so. It’s a key theological category for me because I think it’s what we see so vividly in the person and ministry of Jesus. Not only there, of course, as the God who commits to creation, gives over free will, offers laws and guidance, pleads for people to treat each other well, gets angry...