Even though Armstrong was insistent on maintaining a big lie as part of his public persona, that doesn't mean that everything he said when shaking hands with somebody was a lie. It doesn't erase whatever gold medals kids were inspired to win after they heard Armstrong give a speech about beating cancer.

Never mind it's based entirely on fantasy. But the pleasure of anticipation must outweigh the disappointment of reality, or else we wouldn't keep doing it, right?

These days, I see more vividly how we are called to work out this perplexing business together, and I see that faith is not something that can be both solitary and healthy.

I have a developing sense that salvation finally must have to do with all of us, collectively, and that it must have to do with all else, as well -- all of creation, in fact. It turns out that I am not alone in my thinking so.

Every time we decide unilaterally to "change up" a received tradition, we are likely to risk missing out on how that very tradition might have helped us along the way.

We are, in no uncertain terms, called to be like Christ, and if we will choose to allow it, we will grow into His holy likeness, increasingly and forever.