blog.

“I want you to be” (What St. Augustine, Wordle and Bobby Portis teach us about love)

By Megan Westra / January 25, 2022 /

For all of it’s acclaim, the narrative arc of true love conquering all else is a bit trite. True love calls to mind more readily images of princes stooping low to plop non-consensual kisses onto sleeping maidens, and deeply enmeshed, ill-advised romances streamed unceasingly from the Hallmark channel more than anything else. Despite these misunderstandings…

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People Who Live (A Lent-ish Benediction)

By Megan Westra / April 12, 2020 /

My dear Lent-ish friends,  What a journey these forty days have been. The Wednesday I invited us to throw confetti in the air in place of ashes seems like a lifetime ago. The world has shifted around us, and under our feet and within us.  Which is, perhaps, the best possible way to enter into…

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Today is not Silent

By Megan Westra / April 11, 2020 /

Over the last four weeks I’ve counseled others through, and grappled myself with, the question of “what is the right thing to do right now?”   The world as we knew it is gone. Illusions what we thought the next months would be like shattered. For some of us, the courses of our lives, our…

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Expand

By Megan Westra / April 10, 2020 /

For most of my life I’ve navigated my way through hardships by suppressing most feelings I was uncomfortable with, and sulking at the mercy of the ones I couldn’t. Most clearly, I remember the week in June of 2016 when my grandfather passed away and a few days later I left with a busload of…

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A More Complicated Table

By Megan Westra / April 9, 2020 /

Jesus’ last supper with the disciples has ignited Christian imaginations for centuries, inspiring everything from iconic paintings to hilarious memes in the COVID-19 era. As with so many of the well-known scenes in the Christian story, I wonder if the table has become too commonplace for us to grasp the gravity of those moments.  I…

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Unconventional Praise 

By Megan Westra / April 6, 2020 /

“Holy” is a word conventionally used to describe something set apart or sacred. Something untainted and reserved for acts of worship. Sometimes what is considered holy must be mediated to that which is considered not. Priests administer bread and wine. They crack open ancient texts and parse out the words of the divine. Holiness denotes…

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See, Your Savior Comes Weeping 

By Megan Westra / April 5, 2020 /

One of the more vivid memories of my childhood is of a church service on Palm Sunday. Shiny dress shoes strapped on my feet, topped with lacy socks. Springy cotton sundress swishing around my knees as I skipped up and down the center aisle of the sanctuary waving a palm branch and trying my best…

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Our Daily Bread

By Megan Westra / March 27, 2020 /

Scripture: Matthew 6:11 Grocery shopping is a bit of an event these days. At this moment, I no longer casually swing by the store to grab a pound of coffee or a bag of apples on my way home. Shopping requires preparation and waiting and determining how serious the need to restock the food in…

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Nourished

By Megan Westra / March 25, 2020 /

Scripture: Psalm 23 Like a good millennial, the first solid food I attempted to feed my daughter was a mashed avocado. She was unimpressed, to say the least. The mushy green fruit felt strange against her tongue she shoved the fruit out onto her chin as quickly as I could offer small spoonfuls of it. …

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The Puzzle

By Megan Westra / March 23, 2020 /

Last week after our school system announced they’d be closed for three weeks, I ordered a 3000 piece jigsaw puzzle. I was anticipating long days ahead in our home and wanted to have an ongoing project all three of us could come back to in moments of boredom.    I hate puzzles.    If you…

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