By Jessica Connor. When our eyes are opened, we can see them clearly: our friends, neighbors, brothers and sisters on the fringes of life. Sometimes they don't have enough to eat. Sometimes they don't have a home of their own and stay with family members or live out of their car. Or in a shelter. Or on a park bench. Whatever they can do to survive and get by until they can catch a break.

By Bishop Jonathan Holston. The point of the whole Christmas message is that what we do with our lives matters to Jesus. Christmas is all about Jesus coming to be with us. It is about Immanuel, God with us, looking on! In fact, we can look and see the image of God in Jesus.

By Jessica Connor. It's hard to keep things holy when every store you enter breaks out the tinsel and the plastic Santas before Halloween is even over; when you get gift-shopping sale ads that rival the size of small magazines day after day in your mailbox. Popular Advent ministries like the Angel Tree or Operation Christmas Child get popped right into the mix like items on a to-do list.

By Bishop Jonathan Holston. Bishop Woodie White tells a story of a new pharmacy that was being built in his community.

By Jessica Connor. There we were—my mom, sister, hospital chaplain and I—gathered in a loose circle around my grandmother's hospital bed. Gram is elderly and already struggles with Alzheimer's and respiratory issues, but she'd just been dealt a double whammy: a stroke and congestive heart failure.

By Jessica Connor. Fear is a powerful motivator. It can be used for good purposes by kicking in survival mechanisms (a healthy fear of lightning might keep you safely inside during dangerous storms, while a fear of getting burned keeps your hand out of the flame). But fear can also be used in negative, harmful ways, resulting in the oppression, alienation and victimization of other human beings usually because they are different.

By Bishop Jonathan Holston. An anonymous writer penned these words titled A Collection of Attitudes, referencing the parable of the Good Samaritan, saying: To the expert in the law, the wounded man was a subject to discuss; To the robbers, the wounded man was someone to use and exploit; To the religious men, the wounded man was a problem to be avoided; To the innkeeper, the wounded man was a customer to serve for a fee; To the Samaritan, the wounded man was a human being worth being cared for and loved; To Jesus, all of them and all of us were worth dying for.

By Bishop Jonathan Holston. Every weekday morning, it was the local radio station blaring from my parent's room. The disc jockey, H. Randolph Holder, would recite his signature closing, Smile until 10 o'clock, and the rest of the day will take care of itself.

By Jessica Connor. I am consistently heartened when I learn about — and get the opportunity to write about — people who are doing novel and extraordinary things for the Kingdom. A lot of times, they don't think they're doing so much. I'm just knitting, a woman will tell me, her head tucked shyly; yet to the homeless veteran who wears the soft gloves that her hands lovingly crafted, her skill means the difference between a cruel night and comfort.

By Bishop Jonathan Holston. The college orientation session for our daughter was a mixture of awe, excitement and reality.

By Jessica Connor. One case does not a nation make. And as we move forward in the weeks following the acquittal of neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, we would do well to remember that.

By Jessica Connor. Suddenly, that's all I'm hearing: God-sized vision. God-sized dream. God-sized goal. God-sized reality. God-sized worship. Popularized by Bishop Jonathan Holston, the phrase was repeated everywhere at Annual Conference—in conversation, on the stage, on the floor, in the Twittersphere. And I've got to say, the phrase really works.