Even when life is good, during seasons when all seems right with the world, I sometimes still experience unnamed longings. They are deep, elusive feelings, as if there is something that I know I need but is not within reach. When I sit with them, I come to understand that these longings are not for…
The Bible tells us that Jesus was countercultural. His Jewish upbringing and the mores of his day tell us that he lived in a world with many boundaries between races, religions, and also gender. The life of women in biblical times was oppressive. In this patriarchal society, they were considered inferior and under the authority…
In the compelling book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, Bryan Stevenson, the young lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, gives us an unforgettable look inside this legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of…
I grew up in an Italian family in a predominantly Italian community in the western suburbs of Chicago where I learned how the pillars of my ethnic heritage are open hearts, open doors, warm hospitality, and the sacredness of the table. My grandparents emigrated to America in the 1920s. My maternal grandmother, my Nonna Pierina,…
We are both cancer survivors, my husband and I. Like many people, I had always feared hearing that diagnosis. My father, a non-smoker, had lung cancer, passing on at age 68 just three months after being diagnosed. My mother had bladder cancer in her 80s that required a long and difficult treatment plan. And then…
I have the pleasure of introducing you to Jenny Rae Armstrong, a teaching pastor of Darrow Road Wesleyan Church in Superior, Wisconsin. Jenny is an award-winning freelance journalist who writes about faith, social justice, missional living and women’s issues for Christian publications such as Relevant, Her.meneutics, Mutuality and Red Letter Christians. She is a…
“If I hear, ‘You have such a pretty face’ one more time, I am going to scream. Really. It won’t matter who said it and it won’t matter where I am. I am simply going to scream.” Jemma cradled her old school, low tech, corded landline phone in the crook between her shoulder and cheek….
Author Sharon Garlough Brown (MDiv, Princeton Theological Seminary) is a pastor, spiritual director and retreat leader who is passionate about shepherding others deep into the love of God. Her book Sensible Shoes was named one of television personality Kathie Lee Gifford’s “favorite things” in March 2013. She and her husband Jack have served congregations in…
Jeremiah 17:5—8: This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, on the salty flats where no one lives….
A true survivor. That’s what I think of when I remember my maternal grandmother. She was a woman who experienced being left behind when, as a young bride, her husband sailed for America for a better life for his family; a tragic mishap in which her firstborn daughter was severely burned as an infant; traveling…
The first smile, the first tooth, the first steps, the first word. As a new parent, these are the wonderful, magical moments you anticipate and cherish as your first child grows—forever etched in your memory like a frozen slice of time and place. But there’s one “first”, I’m sure you will agree, that you would…
It’s that time of year — in the Midwest, at least — when the amazing happens: the Canada geese make their annual trek to the warmth of the south for the winter, passing through on their way. I always wonder and marvel at this God-given impetus within them as I see a gaggle flying, in…