I was eight when I first felt like God was silent. Laying in bed at night, restless and haunted by the dramatic altar calls pronounced by volunteers at the Southern Baptist Church I attended on Wednesday nights, I tossed and turned and begged God to find me good enough. And God was silent, so I…
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I have an icon that hangs in my office. It depicts the three persons of the Trinity sitting around a table—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each of them seems to be regarding the others, and one seat of the table remains open, presumably for the one observing the icon to enter in to their communion.…
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1 Timothy 2 has often been cited as prohibitory for women in the role of pastor or teacher. “I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man,” writes Paul, and the Southern Baptist Convention echoes his decree in their 1984 resolution on the ordination of women. Yet the word Paul…
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It’s seven A.M. and I am bleary-eyed, shuffling around the kitchen, washing out my daughter’s thermos and pulling random things off the shelf to pack in her lunchbox. The familiar sensation of frustration tinged just on the side of anger slithers up my spine and nests itself comfortably in a knot at the base of my…
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2008 was the first election I voted in, but I did so begrudgingly. My evangelical upbringing informed a view that voting was important, and particularly voting for a certain party, but I was unconvinced that change really happened in the political sphere. I was just becoming acquainted with the work of folks like Dr. Ron…
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I wrote once about holding life in like you would a butterfly, gently and with open hands. It’s less inspirational to write about hands open and empty, once the butterflies fly away, or trees standing bare and frozen once all the leaves have fallen. It’s beautiful to let things go, until everything looks dead and void.
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There is a comic making rounds on the internet based on the popular poem “Footprints in the Sand.” The actual poem is an endearing (if not a bit cheesy) look back across a person’s life and the ways God has been present to them throughout. When only one set of footprints is visible, God assures…
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Raise Your Voice is timely, necessary and loaded with practices you can implement in your daily life.
Read my full review here, PLUS enter to win your own copy!
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In college there were many parts of the Bible I loved and drew life from. The prophet Micah’s admonition to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God” became something of a motto (my roommate even made t-shirts). The stories about the early church in the book of Acts, accompanied by the re-imagining of…
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I grew up imagining a life in which one day I would finally hit my stride. I would land the job. Buy the house. Marry the person. Have the child. And the rest would all be enjoyment and bliss and the greatest frustrations would arise when someone forgot to press “start” on the dishwasher at…
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