Brad's career was not following a ho-hum trajectory. Rather, it was a home run and he was rounding the bases with fans in the bleachers. He'd graduated from seminary with a full heart, started a prayer ministry and was pastoring a skyward-reaching church. It had gone from six to four hundred in what seemed like a short history. He was watching people get in touch with another neighborhood, where like the Samaritan women they found Jesus and a drink of living water.

It was this success story that'd landed him a dream opportunity. It was a big time position in a much larger and well known church.

Then there was the opportunity to become the senior pastor at another large church, where the membership took another skyward blast from well over a thousand members to the four thousand range in just a hand-full of years.

Now there were a lot of people making demands on Brad's leadership. His pride encountered some discord among a handful of church leaders.Pride is real sneaky. It can settle down real easy and move the furniture into places where you want it to stay. This is the house Brad's success built in his mind. He liked it the way it was no matter the best intentions of other movers and shakers. So, he grabbed an opportunity to pastor another church in a state a plane-ride away.

It was time to move on to other challenges where valuable learning experiences could move more advantageously in his favor. The new church was in another state a plane-ride away.

It didn't seem like an impossible plan to manage. Heidi and the kids would join him when their current house was sold, and Brad would fly home for one week every month.

It didn't take long for old mr. pride to come a calling at Brad's door.An email popped up with a request that resulted in Brad taking a big bite of forbidden fruit. A married woman back in the homeland, that he'd moved away from, wanted help with her faith. She said that she felt more comfortable talking with him than the new pastor of the church.

Dust was collecting on the family picture where long distance inspired neglect was covering simmering inconsistencies. The stretch in time and space morphed into an unhealthy relationship between  him and Heidi, frustrations that raised their ugly heads in Heidi's home-bound experience with being a single mom. She was working part time and responsible for all the thinking and doing that made a family work. There was tension.

It was hard to deal with family tension when his most compelling task imposed restrictions on family relationships. Brad's emotional health was suffering from a larger helping of pride whispering in his ear.He deserved better than the unpleasant circumstances butting heads with his professional responsibilities. The worst part was that he and Heidi were running in opposite directions.

After several back and fourths in the form of emails and phone calls Brad and the other woman met secretly. Warning signs were flashing in big letters. Stop!

Sometimes people hang curtains over their eyes and pull them shut.That's what happened to Brad as he took this detour into an affair—an earthy detour called adultery.

A tornado boils into an earthy neighborhood often without warning. Yet its swirling energy blows a pile of rubble into unsuspecting lives.It twists normally competent buildings into ugly piles of debris.

When the tempest has gone on its way to other unknown parts, people return and families sift through the disgusting waste, looking for some motivating relic. Restoration becomes the prominent preoccupation in their undetermined future.

After three months Brad's conscience began to speak up. He knew what he was doing was wrong and something needed to change. Maybe it would just all go away when they were finally able to settle into a house  together in his new neighborhood. Another voice interrupted his internal conversation.

It told him to knock off the self-pity malarky and get on with the terrible task that he knew he had to embrace.

He called for help. The counselor's voice advocated for a truth-telling session with Heidi and beyond. Everything he knew about himself had been twisted out of its comfortable shape. He resolved to tell Heidi first and , later anyone else who'd be hurt by this unsettling news.

The next trip home brought him to his knees where the words reluctantly spewed from his lips. His bags were packed and waiting at the back of his mind for the eventual response. Get out!

He'd already convinced himself that justice would be done and had made a reluctant peace with the the eventual scene, where she would inevitably kick him out after such a painful confession.

There was another voice speaking to Heidi. She gripped Jesus' hand a little tighter and resolved not to ask Brad to leave. They both had to step back and come to a consensus with clear thinking.

Next,Brad told the church family, first service, second service. He had to tell his children and his parents. Hearts were broken. A career was lost. Finances took a dive. They were alone and broken. Yet, they were still together. Their emotions and family ties were stretched to the limit. However, their determination to move through this terrible episode drove them into grace-mode.

Mercy,powered by compassion, was the ingredient that Heidi was hanging onto with all the strength her brain was able to muster for the long road ahead called recovery. Moving deeper into her friendship with Jesus,she confronted her choices with a picture of the ultimate sacrifice He'd made for her. She could bring peace to her unpredictable future by sacrificing her pride for the power of forgiveness.

It was mercy and forgiving work, powered by compassion, that brought Brad and Heidi together, walking in the never-ending way. Heidi resolved to take one big step into a better way by choosing to forgive Brad. She moved into grace-mode, forgiveness. It was the only way to pursue the possibility of saving their marriage.

With the help of a Christian counselor and many long walks the story was placed on the Father's altar for inspection and understanding.Together they reached into the Father's neighborhood and relied on living water, agape-love, to heal the wounds that had left them weak and afraid.

... we also rejoice in sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans5:1-5, NIV)

Together they overcame their darkest night by shining the light of the Father's agape-love into every dark memory that might later reach up and work destruction into their relationship. They found the power,from the Father, to continue their life in earthy neighborhoods.

Where did Brad and Heidi's walk in the never-ending way lead them?

Brad  became the pastor of a new church and they started a ministry working with married couples. They were working with a group of couples at a Christian music festival, where people chose sessions in tents between singing groups.

During one of the breaks in the music Heidi and Brad found themselves being confronted by a bewildered couple. They were dealing with the turmoil caused by the husband's recent affair. And, they were desperately searching for help.

The emotions of their own history stirred up a strong experience with compassion. They knew they could help!

Jesus' words, recorded in the Bible, shout out the underlying message that in another neighborhood Father, Son and Spirit planned for a death and recovery. Jesus' entered the space, time, material world of an earthy neighborhood. He walked among the weeds and invested his  treasure in human lives. It is clear that Father and Son planned for the right time and the exact place to invest a treasure into a human neighborhood that would work in all neighborhoods for all time.

In these three stories we've seen how the agape-love treasure changed life experiences. How does it work? That's what we'll be talking about in the next chapters.