Today I present a statement I have agonized over, knowing it will be misinterpreted by many, particularly my friends in conservative Evangelical circles. Read more
Today I present a statement I have agonized over, knowing it will be misinterpreted by many, particularly my friends in conservative Evangelical circles. Read more
Perhaps God's small graces are present, even in the deepest brokenness. We can see them in simple kindnesses like the way He turns the fan on our sweating faces when we need to feel the breeze. Read more
I recently sat across the table at dinner-time from a little eight year old Chinese girl named Lauren. I was working my day-job for the children’s home, preparing for one of our annual fundraisers. Lauren’s parents adopted the now precocious, always smiling, 8 year old from China when she was a baby through our adoption services program. Over dinner, they shared stories of the many hoops they jumped through in the adoption process to bring her home with them. Halfway... Read more
'm angry that we talk about "saving people" as if that is something separate or different from keeping them from starving, being tortured, enslaved, or violated by government and neighbors. I’m outraged at how often I've blamed the poor and marginalized for being poor and marginalized instead of doing something to help them. Read more
Last year, one of my friends jumped off the top of a building. It still doesn’t make sense. Read more
“What are we to do when reconciliation fails?” I was 19, the daughter of recently separated parents, when I first asked that ugly question in 2003. I asked it over and over again in the five years to follow before their divorce finalized. I asked the ugly question in 2009 when my best friend betrayed me and, when confronted, told me he “just didn’t have it in him to be the kind of friend I wanted him to be.” He... Read more
Lament is an imperative practice for effective reconciliation work and a healthy reconciliation worker. This should not be surprising, given that lament was present in both the life and death of Christ before resurrection followed - Christ, the ultimate reconciler. Read more
The season of Lent is traditionally a time for repentance and reflection on matters such as these where we have taken up opposing sides of a battle. It's a time for embracing the dissonance between who we are and who we are called to be, what to let go of and what to grow into, even the natural world is in a seasonal limbo between winter and spring. Read more
Our lamenting is not made shallow in light of the hope we have. Our lamenting is made more bitter, as we recognize the disparity between our current state and that which is to come. The deeper our lament, the larger a space we carve out in our spirits for God's hope to fill. Read more
Most days I feel totally inadequate. I wonder if I am strong enough or smart enough or resilient enough. I suppose I'm not, and that's probably the point anyway. But even knowing that doesn’t keep me from growing angry at the strangest things. Read more