"Finally, the gospel is 'good news' not for adherents but rather for practitioners. And the practice of Christianity is made possible not by intellectual assent to propositions but by an existential embrace of worthiness. Most of the harm done in this world is the result of people who are compensating for deep insecurities, who are trying to 'prove' something to someone, but who always come up short. That's why the premise of the gospel deserves to be called 'good news.' It is a call not to accept a formula for salvation but to act on an unearned inheritance: that we are created by God, children of God, beloved by God, and accepted by God.

"It means that every morning, we can wake up worthy and walk. This is the grace that brings radical freedom and the end of striving. Faith is something we do, against the odds, in loving defiance of a world gone mad. We do not become a good person by believing in God; we become a good person by loving God, especially the God we meet in every living thing. For the prophet Micah, his successor Jesus, and all the rest of us who are praying for a new day in the church, the most important question we can ask now is not about what we believe. It is about how we relate.

" 'He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?' (Mic. 6:8)."