"God is sovereign and..." doesn’t let us sleep well at night, because we recognize all the work we’re still called to do. It doesn’t comfort us that everything is going to be ok, because God clearly states that things may be very much not ok until the day where pain and death is defeated, once and for all.
I share this because I think lament is unnatural for us, especially in moments like this one. It’s taking practice for me, and I think seeing it shared more frequently is a good start. So in the congestion of our social and news feeds, I offer this: a prayer of lament.
This is the essential truth, the beautiful paradox for us doubters: Even as God grows more confounding to us, His presence remains our perfect balm. He is everything we’ve ever hoped for.
I wrote this opinion piece for Religion Unplugged with support from Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. We have heard a lot of sweeping statements claiming that we are in unprecedented and unique times. And, of course, in many ways that is true. Yet this is not the first time we have been called to drastically …
Continue reading Republished: What Climate Change and COVID-19 Have in Common
This post was also shared on mbird.com. “I have to be honest...I hadn’t planned on giving up quite this much for Lent.” Reads one of the thousands or millions of memes COVID-19 has blessed us with. That one is my favorite. I feel this one rather intimately and self-pityingly. I don’t usually give up anything …
“What are your fears?” Swirls of unknowns and anxieties and what-ifs lace all of my conversations right now, except the few essential ones my husband and I have a few times a day. “Are you taking out the trash or am I?” “What should we make for dinner tonight?” “We’re almost out of toilet paper.” …
Continue reading Defenseless in the Time of COVID-19 {And Why I Think We’re All So Scared Right Now}
Easter is for the ones who put all their hope in something even when they’re disappointed. Easter is for the ones who are angry, so angry, but show up to the tomb anyway. Easter is for the ones who cast their gaze away and ask, Really? Did he really? but keep listening. Easter is for me, Easter is for you, Easter is for all of us doubters.
I walk into our house and look at all the things that we love about it. I look at the hardwood floors, the fireplace, the tall ceilings, the cozy backyard. I think about all the dreams I have for this house, all the things I hope it will hold for me and Stu, I think …
Being young and married taught me that every single one of my dreams is nothing compared to the plans that God has for me. I was audacious enough to think that my plans might be better than His. I wanted freedom and independence and adventure and I wanted it my way, without thinking that God could give me His own kind of freedom and independence and adventure in a different way.
The world is messy, so messy, it makes my skin crawl sometimes. I am messy, too, maybe even messier.
But the best part, I am being redeemed, and I am loved even, especially, when I am most desperately broken -- and so are you.
This year has been a stepping-away season in a lot of ways. For a variety of reasons, it’s required us to step away from church-related ministry and other kinds of services sorts of things in our community. This was very disconcerting for me. I’ve never lived my life this way. I’ve always had lots and lots of items on my Christian Resume. I thought that with such a lack of regular “service” opportunities I’d have all kinds of time on my hands, but actually I realized eyes shifted from everyone far away and realized the gaping needs of the people right in front of me. I’m realizing that loving my neighbor means the people outside my context, yes, but it also definitely means the people very closest to me.
Growing up, I had the deep privilege of consistently hearing who Jesus is. I heard Bible stories everyday and was branded with an identifier: you are a Christian. You are a child of God. I have no doubt that the greatest gift of my development was being taught the truth about the Bible. This was …
