Good thoughts on living and ministering in a poor area of Appalachia:

I’m never sorry that I live in the midst of people who are clear that times are hard, poverty is normal, and God is exceedingly and abundantly good. We may quibble about how God intervenes and downright disagree about how to express that confidence in God, but I’ll never disagree that we should direct one another’s attention to the hope we have in God.

In the story of Jacob- which I’ve been teaching to my students- Jacob and Esau are able to say to one another: I have enough. They had been blessed by God. They had found peace. They were reconciled to one another. God had answered many prayers.

So they were able to say, “I have enough, because God has been good.”

{Read it all: One Message the Mountain Preachers Get Right}