This is an excerpt from the introduction of Stretched: A Study for Lent and the Entire Christian Life by Christopher Richmann (1517 Publishing, 2026).
We can bring our troubles, griefs, sorrows, and sins to Jesus, who meets us smack dab in the middle of our messy mob.
Confession isn’t a detour in the liturgy. It’s the doorway.

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Out of His mind indeed, as He took our place between murderers and received the insults and torture of humanity.
There are a few occasions in the Bible where the curtain lifts, and we get to peer into the inner workings of the Divine Court.
When it comes to this world, our beds are most often a mess even when we do our best to make them in the morning.
There in that moment, the waters of baptism reached down deep into the forsaken path of the grave with a man whose body and mind could no longer hold onto any reality otherwise.
In Martin Luther's Small Catechism he borrows a line from St. Augustine about what defines a "god."
We are called to proclaim the life, death, and resurrection of the Answer incarnate, Jesus Christ, and in love respond to the questions that inevitably arise against it.
When we focus on God's self-giving Word, when we turn our attention to Golgotha, we are shown a wholly different way of viewing the Commandments.
From the untouchable living on the streets of India to the millionaire in Manhattan; from the farmer in Germany to the escort in Vegas; from the missionary in Argentina to the bartender in Ireland—they are all in the love zone of the Lord. Every. Single. One.
As a woman who has suffered years of abuse, there have been times in my new life when I have found myself living out Psalm 6:6.
Jesus, Who is truly God, became a regular Joe (or Joshua as the case may be) for us.
There is just something about the idea of not being ‘under Law’ that sets off all kinds of alarms in the minds of many Christians.
Because of Jesus, we don’t have to pretty up anything ugly thing in life.