In Disney’s recent release Encanto, the concept of transformation is inverted. Our typical view of transformation is akin to our superhero origin stories. For example, Captain America is weak and scrawny, but once he is injected with a special serum, he becomes the muscle-rippling hero we all know and love. As a culture, we tend […]
Community
Celebrate by Bearing Burdens
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2 On any given day, my husband and I have a list of tasks we need to accomplish for our family, even more so during this time of year. There are kids to drive to school, pick up from school, take to practice, […]
Cloud by Day (Fire by Night)
Walter Breugeman talks a lot about the pharaoh the Israelites left behind. He says pharaoh is a stand-in for all the empires that have ever been: Egypt. Rome. Western capitalism. I remember being shocked in college when I first heard somebody question capitalism. You can question that? I thought. Boy, can you! As an economy, […]
Valor’s Unsettling Saints
Previously posted in March of 2020. What kind of women are women of valor? I think they are women who are courageous enough to use their God-given gifts, others-oriented, and are willing to buck the status quo to follow Jesus and bring forth goodness and justice. Right off of the bat, I think of St. […]
Courage for Living Connected
Editor’s note: Author Afton Rorvik’s words here are an adaptation from her new book (released today), Living Connected: An Introvert’s Guide to Friendship. Her call to the courageous, connected life comes just in time—and for such a time—as THIS. *** My friend Sharla recently had a significant birthday. Her sister noticed from Facebook that I […]
The Beauty of Community
Jane Harper’s books transport the readers to some of the most challenging locations in Australia and its surrounding areas. She regularly sets her stories in inhospitable locations like the infamous outback such as in The Lost Man or a remote seaside village in Tasmania in The Survivors. Both of these books are murder mysteries but […]
A Spool of Thread and a Piece of Pie
I was searching for a spool of black thread last summer. I couldn’t find one. Supplies were depleted in brick and mortar stores, and nothing was available at the online marketplace named after a gargantuan river. A simple roll of black thread proved to be a scarce commodity. All I needed to do was mend […]
Broken Body
The Deacon walked from group to group administering the sacraments. Each family stood masked, in front of their camp chairs, in an empty parking lot. Our church had pivoted during the pandemic, which allowed my husband and I to feel safe bringing our asthmatic 18-month old to worship. But while our church’s new protocols kept […]
Love Justice
I stand on a dirt path in the Philippines. It has been raining for weeks. The path is muddy and rocky where rivulets of water have washed away the dirt. Above me a young mama looks out the window. The frame of an open window. There is no glass pane on the […]
Complication and Contentment
My first place was a two-bedroom apartment with a little porch that overlooked the lush green of Richmond, Virginia. I was a single mom of a curious two-year-old, so an apartment on the third floor added an extra layer of complication to my coming and going, but I preferred the inconvenience over the sound of […]
A Few Simple Words
A recent Twitter thread asked for folks to respond with six words that could change the world (with the hashtag #6wordworldchange). People responded with statements such as: “Help me understand what you mean.” “This is hard. I need help.” “I believe you. I’ll help you.” “I was wrong. Please forgive me.” “You have something to […]
Serving Simply
As I walked down the uneven sidewalk, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people swarming past me. Many carried umbrellas (though there wasn’t a cloud in the sky), some impossibly napped while squatting, while many others walked oblivious to the body spaces of others. This was a typical day walking in a city […]
True Humility Doesn’t Trust Power
The posthumous reports about Ravi Zacharias broke my heart. He was an amazing apologist and speaker. I have read several of his books and listened to him speak on a number of topics. What I always loved about him was his humble demeanor. The way he seemed to really care about where the other person […]
How Much Cultural Discomfort Can You Put Up With?
I know it’s hard to embrace someone else’s cultural values. Whether it’s their noise level, the smell and look of their food, their communal gatherings, the way they look at you, talk, dress, or act, another person’s way of life often feels like a disruption. Their actions and words can annoy us or make us […]
The Most Honest Thing
The magical, white fairy lights look almost friendly on this forest-dark night. There they are, wrapped around the cables swooping from one side of the rushing river to the other. And from those steel ropes hangs a suspension bridge—the bridge that stands between my little family and our cozy cabin on the far side of […]
Stumbling to Stability
When the darkness closes in around us, will we still know that God is good? When the storms rage inside, will we be able to abide in the truth that Jesus will be with us to the very end of the age? What keeps us anchored to God in times like these? We, too, need something to keep us steadfast when it would be easier to cut ties and run from communities of faith that seem to be crumbling all around us.
There is no place we can magically find God, no one Christian tradition or person who holds the answers. We all spend our life in the slow, stumbling surrender to the mystery