When I was four years old, I donned the emerald green satin leotard of my dreams, tutu attached, and danced on a stage before an auditorium full of smiling people, STARING AT ME (and about fifteen other little girls). It was incredible. I still remember the smell of the satin, the magic of their attention, […]
I was nineteen years old and crazy in love with Jesus when that preacher told an auditorium I was “damaged goods” because of my sexual past. He was making every effort to encourage this crowd of young adults to “stay pure for marriage.” He was passionate, yes, well-intentioned, and he was a good speaker, very […]
I was sitting there at the bar in a ritzy Manhattan hotel when he walked in. He smiled at me. I literally turned around. He’s smiling at the glamazon that must be seated behind me because I am wearing grey skinny jeans, a bright red t-shirt that reads “EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT MY BLOG,” & red gym shoes. […]
I remember seeing them cringe with hurt faces. Whispers would come from around the corner of the high school hallway as the outspoken Baptist girls would mumble hurt-words like “cult” and “brainwashed.” The girls didn’t think they were heard, but the eyes said it all & gave away their guilt. The hurt faces told me […]
Maybe these weren’t the links you expected to find over your morning coffee. Last week, our own Sarah Bessey wrote a little piece that started a big conversation. Since, there have been a number of conversations cropping up around the blogosphere about sexuality and church. A few caught our eye and we wanted to link them here […]
The junior high boys swore under their breath, and I looked at them wide-eyed and appalled. I slapped their hands, half-chastening, half-flirting, said, “You shouldn’t say that!” Once, the skinny youth group drummer, fed up with my judgy stares, challenged, “Where does it say in the Bible that you shouldn’t swear?” And I went home […]
“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection…As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, “Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody.” […]
Listen . . . Let me tell you a deeper story, lest we forget why we are here in this naked place, where we value hard the speak that comes not from our shallow parts, but from the truth of our trenches. It came one day out of the hunger in our bellies, an idea […]
There are moments you remember, moments that are burned in your psyche like a watercolor tattoo. The moment I found A Deeper Story is one of those moments. Sarah Bessey’s Incarnation post had gone viral, so viral that it was even being shared amongst my mainline clergy friends. The Internet was a different place back in 2011. Evangelicals […]
I’m not a super disciplined person. But recently I’ve taken up a new spiritual discipline, and I’m quite excited about it. At night, when the rest of the family is in bed, I have been regularly and routinely seeking time alone to contemplate and commune with the Divine. You know, like one of the Desert Fathers or […]