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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“My Old Man” is the story of a single father, a grossly flawed character, told through the eyes of his son who can’t help but love him.
In Christ we are already dead to sin and the eternal consequences of sin. “There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,” writes Paul (Romans 8:1).
Those clinging to God in Christ can be assured that it’s all clean.
Yet, just as the Jews had two choices, true God or no God, the Christian has the same, true Jesus or no Jesus.
If it's not Christ Jesus "for you" they're not delivering the Gospel to you.
If affairs always begin by believing lies, then repentance always begins by believing the truth: the truth that you are in the wrong, the truth that you have a God who loves you in Jesus Christ, and the truth that he and he alone can save you not only from adultery but from every sin that seeks to lead you down the path of destruction.
If we are saved by faith, if it is by faith that we have life in His name, what do the sacraments have to do with it? The answer is: everything.
In a world so wired by law and rules, judgement is everywhere.
The world doesn’t need dads who are more stressed than they already are. It needs fathers who care for their families, not in heroic ways, but in common, everyday ways.
You have suffered your son to come unto Jesus; but fathers, don’t let him die!
This rather unique human being is God grounded in our humanity. The man Jesus.
Every single child we raise has a completely unique perspective, personality, strength, and weakness.