This week, the inside of my church is a shanty town. The narthex is a patchwork of donated refrigerator and Amazon boxes; leaning, lopsided, and beautiful. “It’s a castle!” I grinned, locking eyes with the kindergartner kneeling next to her creation. She returned my smile with one of her own, highlighted with chocolate frosting stains…
Every person has worth and should be treated with dignity. When a person is in need, they sometimes feel like less of a person. And when they receive help, they could feel like a project instead of a person of worth. No matter who you identify as those who are marginalized, you draw a line….
Welcoming marginalized people is often seen as a challenging task beyond the resources of the ordinary congregation. But the smallest congregations often do an outstanding job of including the marginalized as part of the family of God. It’s six months since John died, and his colorfully decorated tambourine still hangs on the pew where he…
“I don’t want to come to the U.S. Everyone hates us here.” The words stunned me. I was face-to-face with a woman who had just crossed the border from Mexico into Texas, and the only emotion she had was fear; fear that she wasn’t welcome in our country and that people were going to be…
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…
As I scan across the byte-sized headlines filling my social media accounts, an increasingly common phrase beckons my attention. “Mental Health” is finally gaining a common place in our cultural vernacular. In the midst of strong opinions regarding the current ills of the American narrative, “Mental Health” becomes a tossed-around phrase connected to resolutions. But,…
My first Christmas in China, my American teammate got sick and asked to be alone. Rather than spend Christmas binge-watching television by myself, I jogged to the outskirts of the city where tarmac turned to orange dust. I ran through dry fields that would grow potatoes, spinach, and sunflowers in the summer, then wandered into…
It started off so innocently. After hearing about it from what seemed like every person on the planet, I listened to the first season of Serial. Then I started listening to a few other podcasts that were recommended to me. Then I started subscribing regularly to a few political and comedy podcasts. I listened to…
“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in You” (Isaiah 26:3). Sometimes I write things that surely are not of my own doing. I reread this recently, and it laid over me like Ezekiel’s rain blessing. “Perfect Peace. The only peace that keeps us sane in the midst…
A lovely young woman sits across from me in my small therapy office, buttoned up so tight it looks like she’s hardly even breathing. Her lips are pressed together as she carefully folds, then refolds, the Kleenex on her lap. Then she stops, looks up at me, and says, “If I tell you what happened,…
Once upon a time, there was a woman whose name was Abigail. Abigail not only was beautiful, but also very wise. Abigail was the apple of her parents’ eyes. They delighted to watch her grow in grace and knowledge, and gain the favor of those who knew her. Naturally, when it came time to get…
The Bible, like life, is rife with stories of gender-based violence. Abuse. Enslavement. Rape. Murder. Torture. Kidnappings. Forced marriages. Exploitation. It is there, in all its horrifying depravity, and the stories hint at realities that are even worse. Realities that untold numbers of women around the world are all too familiar with. These texts become…
The women who were Jesus’ great-great-great-ancestors had issues. Their problems might not necessarily qualify them as bad (as in Liz Curtis Higgs’ Bad Girls of the Bible) or even lost (Lost Women of the Bible by Carolyn Custis James), but they had their shortcomings. Only five women are mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew 1:1-16….
Just then a woman who had hemorrhaged for twelve years slipped in from behind and lightly touched his robe. She was thinking to herself, “If I can just put a finger on his robe, I’ll get well.” Jesus turned—caught her at it. Then he reassured her: “Courage, daughter. You took a risk of faith, and…