Equipping Believers for our Lord

Faith and the Five Senses

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Or use the following index of eMeds in this series.

Exodus: Gods and Kings…Worth $11.50?

Photo by Paul Burger via creationswap.com After going to the movies last night to see Exodus: Gods and Kings (and recalling the strain that Noah put on church-theater relations earlier this year), I decided to create a quick guide to help movie-goers decide...

Foot Problems, Paperwork, and Prayer

  September 2014   I locked the office door and turned toward my car. The movie theater, with its sea of windshields glittering under the lamp light, greeted me. I crumpled into the driver's seat and massaged my neck, trying to release the lead ball...

A Long Time Coming

Photo courtesy of Jason Watson via creationswap.com “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son…” Luke 1:13  The smell of yeast met Zechariah at the door. Elizabeth’s back was still turned, her...

Christmas: God is on the Move

Yesterday, two police men were assassinated in New York due to racial tension, ISIS continued to bleed its violence across Syria, and nearly 21 million people lived trafficked as sex slaves.   Right about now, I need to be reminded that God hasn’t forgotten...

A Good Year to Be Single

"Have you been dating anyone?" The inevitable question floated over church pews and hashbrown casseroles during my recent trip home. The question left me wondering if the success of 2014 rose and fell on my ability to snag a life partner.   On Christmas Eve...

Working for More Than a Paycheck

Between bites of kimchi, my friend told me about her goal of developing a weekly rhythm at work. She pinched a clump of rice between her chopstick and explained that this would increase her productivity.    As I drove home, I ruminated on the taste of garlic...

A Good Day to Indulge the Senses

The sun seeped through my jeans, warming my legs, as I lounged on the sofa and waited for my espresso to brew. One of Mom's holiday shortbread cookies--edible gold and made from a recipe passed down by my Scottish ancestors (or so I like to think)--waited...

Love Every Minute

                  Every minute we're called to love.                   Many hours we're called to serve.                    Some days we're called to lead.                      But we only truly lead                       during the days that we've been...

How Dating is Not Like Buying a Car

Dating is not like buying a car. The Kelley Blue Book won't help you determine--based on manufacturer, year, accident history, and specific features--the market value for the model you're considering.    Now, I realize this blog isn't for everyone, but it...

Thank God for Pad Thai

The smell of spices wafted towards me, distracting me from my date's prayer until he said, "God, thank you for giving Thai food to humanity."    I choked on my saliva as I tried to hold back a laugh. In one sentence his prayer shattered the sombre...

Maybe Christianity is More like Netflix

I rinsed bits of wild rice and cranberry off my plate and grabbed my laptop from the table. While the next episode of Gilmore Girls loaded, I nestled into the couch and prepared myself for a Netflix binge.*    The following morning, as I sipped on a cup of...

Eternal Afternoons–Memoirs of a Pastor’s Kid on Sunday

             Screened in on your back porch—              you big and boring people              who just learned my name              while milling in the foyer              after service.              Now I’m stuck all afternoon              at your house...

Lessons on Singleness from a Kindergarten Teacher

A giant, purple muumuu cascaded over her large, mocha body as she sat in my exam room. I still suspect that catching cold delighted Mrs. Rodriguez*, since it gave her a reason to see everyone at the office.    A retired kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Rodriguez...

Sensing the Way into Worship

Filming Much Ado About Nothing (2012) in black and white worked for Joss Whedon--in minimizing the visual input he managed to accentuate the drama. But this technique doesn't always work, especially when it comes to worship.    Reading through the Bible, I...

Beauty at the Curb

Jewel scraped her boot through the leaves congregating in the gutter. Her glossy, black heel revealed a cigarette butt and the corner of a Snickers wrapper matted to the cement by summer dirt and fall rain. From the look of it, the trash had claimed this...

Controlling My Anxiety with Mason Jars

I was on a pre-break-up run. Of course, I didn’t know it at the time, but I had begun to worry about my dating difficulties, and pounding it out on the trail to White Rock Lake seemed like a good idea.   I felt stuck in one of those Vine videos on Facebook,...

Eugene Oh and The Funniest Story I’ve Ever Heard

I received news this week that my friend Eugene Oh died. He was in his thirties, a husband and father of a toddler, and died suddenly from a hemorrhage in his brain.    I first met Eugene while visiting my brother in Korea. While hiking and scrambling up...

No Demons Here

Imagining demon-possession seems unwise, so I start with the tombs. Mark's demoniac lived among the tombs (Mark 5:1-20). Clenching my lashes together, I fight off the brightness diffusing through my eyelids. Imprints of my cherry wood desk and the crape...

Being Honest About Singleness

Sometimes, I don't mind singleness--when I'm hiking between cacti on the border of Mexico, taking a selfie at the Meyerson before the violins warm up, or forking a pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sauce in downtown Dallas. On these days, I might even like...

Confessions of a Taker

Recently, I drove my slow-leaking front tire over to Discount Tires. Twenty minutes later I drove off with one construction nail less, one patch more, and a receipt for $0.00.   I love free things.     Photo courtesy of Laura Merchant via Creationswap.com I...

How I Started Hating Mornings Less

I used to be a morning person, back when the New Kids on the Block were still new. Not anymore.   Now, when my phone buzzes at 5:30 am, I usually hit snooze (at least once) before one annoying neuron, buried deep within the gray matter, insists that I get...

Do Christians Still Care About Beauty?

I sat in front of my laptop. The sun was still snoozing under the horizon and I was reading Exodus, one of those books from the front half of the Bible. Actually, I wasn’t reading. I was floating half-conscious over paragraphs about alters, oil, and priests...

How “Doing Devotions” Can Hurt Your Spiritual Life

Yesterday, I took a pre-work nap. That’s right. After rocketing out of bed at 5:30 a.m, I slunk back an hour later for what my great-grandfather Ted called a “horizontal.” Sliding fast into the land of sleep, I apologized to God.   “Sorry for skipping the...

How to Rediscover the Lost Art of Honesty

I stood daydreaming as the bank teller processed my Canadian check.     “PIN number, please,” she said.    The four digits rattled off my lips, feeling strange.    “Ma’am, please enter your PIN.”   Sometime, despite two bachelors and one masters degree, I’m...

(un)Glamorous Adventures in Adulthood

Certain moments make me feel the glow of adulthood—sitting at a mahogany desk while a mortgage broker rattles off numbers, tracing my finger across the black letters on a business card, “Shannon Gianotti, FNP-C”, and driving myself to DFW Airport last...

When I’m Hurting and It Seems Like God’s to Blame

“Stop, Emma!” My brother’s voice exploded as he slammed the table with his fist and catapulted to his feet. His two-year-old daughter’s decent from the chair halted, fear streaking her face and her bare feet dangling above the floor. Tears welled in her...

3 Ways to Avoid Being A People-Pleaser

“Can’t you just give me something for constipation?”   I rested my stethoscope on her wrinkled belly and heard nothing. I pushed down gently and she jerked in pain.    “I think you need to go the hospital,” I said. “You can barely stand me touching your...

Celibacy Is No Fun

My last neighbor owned a red Dodge Charger that gleamed as bright as his shaved head. He lived below me, and when his lady friends spent the night I wore earplugs.    In my new apartment, I sleep in peace. Still, sex pops up everywhere—the magazine rack at...

Can God Use Me?

I weaved in an out of traffic listening to my friend. Every Tuesday we hit a local coffee shop and try to make a dent in our writing aspirations. I changed lanes and focused back on what she was saying. During the last week she had run into two strangers...

How to Feel Happier in 2 Minutes–Pencil Not Included

Six years ago, I clocked out of the burn unit for the last time and said goodbye to IVs, night shifts, and skin grafts. When people learn that I worked as a burn nurse they often blink and whisper, “That must’ve been so hard.”    Working on a burn unit was...

Get A Refund on Your Membership to The Guilt Club

The cop scribbled on his pad. “I don’t want to ruin your weekend,” he said. “So, I’ll run your card and let you off with a warning.”    “Yes, sir,” I said, ducking my head. “Thank you, sir.” My head bobbed again.   Photo courtesy of Areta Ekarafi via...

Can America and Christianity Still Be Friends?

Ever since the Mayflower put down anchor, Christianity has enjoyed a place of privilege and respect in our country—a sort of friends-with-benefits relationship to government. But, for a lot of people, the spark is gone. They’re ready to cut ties and move on....

Finding God in the Beautiful

I squinted through the glass, studying the columns of ruffles, the blue sash, and the hint of puffed sleeves. My friend and I talked about the dress for weeks. But, I'm a pastor’s kid, which means I suffer from a love-hate relationship with shopping.    If a...

Share the Good Life, But Maybe Not the Infomercial

A 23-year-old Sunday school teacher converts to Islam after hours online with Faisal, a Bangeldashi man living in England. He tells her, “I know someone who will marry you but hes not good looking, 45 bald but nice muslim,” and Alex plans to fly to Austria...

7 Ways to Love People Better

“Any dates lately?” I ask.    The sunshine skitters across the waves. A biker speeds past us.    “A couple,” she says. “Nothing serious, though.”   “Guys or girls?”     I wait for her answer. Uncertainty swirls around me. What if she says girls?   Photo...

3 Reason Why To Ask For Help More Often

I hold the flame near the burner. Click, click, click. The smell of fuel stings my nose. My stomach growls. Just then, my cousin Andrea returns with a bucket of water.   “Still not working?” she asks.    “No.”       “We could drive to Trelingua,” she says,...

How to Navigate Your Sex Drive & Stay Celibate

I opened the break room door. The smell of fajitas met me, along with a man in scrubs. He stood up and shook my hand—all six feet and four inches of him and looking like someone from People’s Most Beautiful 2015.   One minute, it’s a normal Friday. The next,...

How Should We Love Broken People–with Grace or Truth?

I tear the envelope open and unfold the jury summons. Grumble. The secretary double books my 11:00 appointment. Complain. I feel lonely on a Friday night. Grumble. Complain. Grumble.   Hi, my name is Shannon, and I’m a complainer.    Nearly ten years ago, I...

7 Ways to Worship God through Your Work

Some days, the trudge from nine to five feels like trekking through a spiritual no-man’s land. Maybe I should resign, I think, and move to Nepal and pass out copies of the Gospel of John. Then my work could count for the Kingdom.    When I find myself...

5 Things Single People Need from the Church

I wrote this article for Kindred Spirit's Summer 2015 issue “Singles and the Church.” Kindred Spirit is the magazine of Dallas Theological Seminary. *       *       *      *      *    1. See us.   If you’re a speaker, talk about marriage, but also about the...

The Other Half of The Story

For some reason, when people talk about God, they often start with sin. But, that’s not where anyone’s story begins—not that weekend you got wasted, or when your coworker had an affair, or even when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.    Photo courtesy of...

A Few Perks to Not Having Kids

This summer, my family rented a cabin in the Adirondacks. For a glorious week I escaped the Texas inferno and romped around with my two nieces who are, without question, the cutest humans on the planet.     One evening, as my brother, Jason, laid on the...

Out of the Chaos (and into the Mist)

I flitted through Hope Coffee dipping in and out of each photograph. I had promised myself to leave by 8:30 p.m. and it was already 8:45. In less than 12 hours, the men from church would be knocking on my door, ready to load up the U-Haul, and I still had...

7 Awesome Ideas for Connecting Faith to Your Other Five Senses

I sat on the rocky shore and gripped a small book in my hands, consuming its pages like a hungry teenager devouring pizza. A few days later I would return to Dallas changed—and not just from the mineral waters at Ouachita State Park.   Madeline L’Engle and...

Grand Central Station

Photo courtesy of Maria Molinero via unsplash.com   Sprinting, squeezing through the metal doors, my mind a passenger on every train, careening through a cityscape of deadlines, past endless blocks of tasks that must be done, now dipping into tunnels webbed...

So We Say That We’re Christians, But What Do We Smell Like?

For some Christians, the last couple months have felt like a re-run of 127 Hours—the movie about Aron Ralson, the solo hiker who got pinned under a bolder in a Utah canyon. He survived, but only by cutting off his forearm with a pocketknife. Similarly, the...

Jimmy’s–The Italian Stallion of Food Stores

This post first ran in January as a guest blog on www.aspire2.com.   It shocks me how many people haven’t heard about one of the epicurean gems in Dallas. So, for the good of my neighbors and delight of their tastebuds, I propose that everyone make a...

Awkward Singles Anonymous

"Maybe you'll meet a man, hijack the wedding, and get married yourself," my friend, Raimie, said. Bless his optimism, but Raimie came late to the Christian dating scene.   Unfortunately, a good number of us church-going singles ought to attend ASA–Awkward...

When Has God Ever Done Anything For Us?

“God’s never done anything for me,” my friend said, “so why should I do anything for him?”    Her question hung in the darkness between us—her final reason for rejecting Jesus.   Photo courtesy of Gudbjörn Valgeirsson via unsplash.com, edited    I wonder how...

Just Because It Deserves a Blog All Its Own…

I dump the  powder into the pot and slip into the past...back to fifth grade and Miss Vanderlaan’s turtleneck sweaters in that same yellow-grey shade. A pungent smell—maybe garlic, maybe cumin—calls me back to the present and I shove the empty ziplock into...

Imagining Our Way Toward God

What pops into your head when you see the word…   Imagination.    Today, it makes me think of The Princess Bride with its ROUS's and six-fingered man. Most of us are happy to pass off imagination to Hollywood, artists, and six-year-olds pretending to be...

How to Avoid the Unhelpful Question

There are questions worth asking in life. Did I put deodorant on? Did I forget to pay my credit card bill? Should I eat the re-fried beans considering I’m on a date? These are helpful questions. Then, there are unhelpful questions, the king of which, in my...

Stealing Psalm 82 for Paris

She got a call. “Your brother was at the Bataclan.” Tomorrow’s lunch is off. She won’t ever meet him for lunch again.   How do we make sense of such evil? How do we pray?   Photo courtesy of CreationSwap via creationwsap.com   Over breakfast, I read Psalm...

FREE Advent Meditations

I didn’t grow up with Advent–except for one Christmas when mom made a wreath. I would half-listen as Dad read from the book of Isaiah or Matthew, mesmerized by the cadence of his voice and the flickering flames. Then, for years, I forgot about Advent. I’d...

The Space to Love You

  Unpack my heart       and give me room to breathe       your true self, for I could never      wrap my arms around      your whole self or hold my breath      and reach the bottom of      your deep self.  But, I can wade this moment      in your shallows,...

Why We Need Advent

During Advent, it can seem like Christians rummage through the Old Testament, pull out obscure verses and say, "Hey! I just found something about Jesus buried deep in the book of Isaiah!" But those promises aren't actually obscure. They were given to real...

The St. John’s Bible: Theology & Art Can Play Nice After All

I clicked delete thinking, “The bookstore is hosting an event to promote a new Bible? That sounds boring.” That’s right, I used the words “Bible” and “boring” in the same sentence.    A week later, I shuffled my feet inside that same bookstore, waiting for...

Field Guide to Singleness: Survival Tip #1

Tip #1: Do something unproductive, and enjoy it.   We’re adults now, which means we have jobs. And, unless we have the good fortune of being artists, our workplaces can suck us into the black hole of productivity. If we’re not careful, the work week (whether...

The Sacrament of Writing

Can glory be wrapped up in nouns or tied with verbs, like string?  It seems like a disservice when fireworks break at my ribs and embers shower down and Billows blow to flame.    I scuff my shoes, apologize for words that leave their tracks all over holy...

Food Is Not the Enemy

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Theology at the Table: Chef Andrew Powers

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVpuF12F99I&width=700&height=437[/embedyt] Does a chef think differently about God than software engineer or a kindergarten teacher? Probably, since God reveals himself in everything he's made and our careers...

The Christian Virtue of Inadequacy

“God, I just don’t have what it takes,” I blurted out and grabbed a sweater off the hanger. The sound of my voice surprised me. I usually slog through mornings mute and zombi-like, but standing between the doors of my closet I felt trapped by my...

The Confusing Part of Art

Ever since high school, I’ve had a rocky relationship with art. Every year or two, I’d find myself at an art museum, paying the entrance fee. Then, I’d speed through the exhibits, dodging clocks that melted into puddles and giant canvases covered in orange....

The Waiting Room

"Sir?"    A woman’s voice ricochets inside his head.    "Sir?"   He follows the line of chairs to the pamphlets, mounted on the wall, and the window beyond. A woman sits behind it, with the glass pane slid open, and points toward a young man who is taking...

I Don’t Mind Confessing Sins—As Long As They Aren’t Mine

I don’t really like confessing my sins. It’s a lot like going to the dentist, which I didn’t mind until last October. I sat in the exam chair, looking up at the X-rays and trying to process what my dentist was saying. Not me, I thought, not after thirty-two...

The Jesus I’d Rather Not Look At

When I first saw The Tortured Christ, by Brazilian sculptor Guido Rocha, it didn’t ask my permission, it just went ahead and seared itself into my subconscious. Every couple of months since then, The Tortured Christ pops up, uninvited. All of the sudden...

The Anchoress Soars

This piece of flash fiction first ran in Warden Magazine, February 2016. *     *     *     *     *     Drops of rain gather on the sill, like peasants on a feast day, then tumble down the wall. The rivulets remind me of things long ago—the tall Scots pines...

Thrive in Monotony

* This post is from guest blogger, Jed Ostoich, who writes at The Narrator.   I have a long history of working in food service. I started saving money for college by working two jobs in high school. Right after the last bell, I’d drive thirty minutes to an...

Your Body Is a Gift, No Matter What You See

America has body-image issues — everyone knows that. But, when, I complained once to my boyfriend-at-the-time about the pressure on women to be beautiful, sexy, and the size of a Starbuck’s straw, he responded that men feel pressure, too. Since women now...

How to Thrive in the Church When You’re Misunderstood

I don't fit the Christian norm. I'm thirty-four, single, and working on my fourth degree. Not exactly a Proverbs 31 woman. Life took a different route than I'd planned and sometimes, especially in Christian circles, I feel out of place. I'm not the only one,...

Maybe It’s Time for a Rest

Do you ever feel like your life is stuck on mile 20 of a marathon? You just want to crumple on the asphalt and take a nap, but the mountain of Xray reports (or diapers or bills) refuses to budge. So, you push yourself on for another week, only to find...

In Memory of Beth Overacker, and What Lies Beyond

I usually heard Beth before I saw her, her pixie voice bouncing down the hall, and I would be glad that she was assigned to our end of the ICU. Before long, her blonde head would pop around the corner. She'd rummage through the fridge looking for IV Zosyn...

How Imagination Makes Us Better Christians

Growing up in church, I wanted the truth of God to burn in my chest, but too often it sat shelved in my brain, collecting dust. In youth group, I learned about this disease. I had a breakdown between my head and my heart. Other people had it, too. In fact,...

Finding God through Travel

When Tameshia Williams, a classmate and fellow foodie, told me about how she encounters God through travel, I loved her perspective--so much so that I asked her to guest post here on Faith the Other Five Senses.    *          *          *    Some people call...

5 Things to Know About God If You Want to Change the World

Lessons from the book Fierce Convictions by Karen Swallow Prior   As kids, we believed that we could change the world. We wanted to fly to the moon, write novels, and save people from burning houses, but then we grew up and discovered just how much time...

Top 10 Summer Reads on Faith and the Other Five Senses

Summer's here which means it's time to grab a glass of iced tea and feel the sunshine on your legs as you get lost in a book. So, as you pile up a summer reading list, here's ten suggestions that will deepen your love for God, the world that he made, and the...

The Problem with Tithing

My friend felt guilty. A grad student and barely able to pay rent, he didn’t have enough money to tithe and worried that he was disappointing God. As I listened to the strain in his voice, it struck me that Jesus never taught about tithing.   Jesus' silence...

A Prayer for the White Church in America

Lord,  We acknowledge that our lives in this country have differed from those of our black brothers and sisters. While we’ve experienced the common pain and grief of life, our skin color has usually exempted us from the cold looks, stinging slurs, and...

18 Ways to Savor Summer

During my childhood summers in Ontario, I’d bolt out of bed and check the red line on the thermometer outside the kitchen window, hoping it had crawled high enough for shorts. Summers were an endless glory of rolling down hills, jumping through sprinklers,...

A Few Words that Changed Me

"So, you're here today about your blood pressure," I said, my words trotting out. The key to a successful morning at a doctor’s office is to keep up the tempo. Fall behind schedule before 9 a.m. and you’ll have a morning full of grumpy patients waiting for...

6 Things I Learned about Myself from Reading Old Journals

When I sat down before a pile of old journals last month, I prepared myself for a barrage of adjectives and angst. The notebooks crowded around me like walls of a torture chamber—spiraled and thread bound ones, some covered with waxy Chinese paintings,...

Finding God in the Flavor Lab

I’m thrilled to have Annette Uza, a friend from church, kicking off a new series of blogs about how people find God in their work. These guest posts will run on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. Subscribe on the right to get these posts delivered...

Thank You, Olympians, for Helping Me Worship God

As I scroll through the Rio 2016 app on my phone, soaking up every video highlight, I wonder what makes the summer Olympics so mesmerizing. Maybe their infrequency helps them resist assimilation into the normalcy of life that is Sunday afternoon football or...

A Double Dose of Mom-Guilt — Finding God in Motherhood

Thanks to Seana Scott for this guest post in the Finding God at Work series, on how she found God in motherhood and particularly in her struggle with double mom-guilt. Read more by Seana at her blog.   *                         *                        *  My...

3 Ways to Unclutter Your Soul

We buckled ourselves into the SUV, four adults and two nieces smooshed between all the camping gear. By buckled, I mean to include Grandma’s arms which clasped around the two littles in their pink swimsuits. Not exactly legal, but the Honda Pilot inched past...

Confessions of a Sales Associate

Thanks to Mikaela McIntosh for this guest post in the Finding God at Work series on how she discovered God in a job she never wanted. *                   *                    *   Growing up, my brother and I promised each other that we would never work at a...

Should Christians Love Across Gender Lines?

My roommate walked in the door as I finished typing an email. As she asked me a question, my fingers went into autopilot. I clicked a few words, hit send, and started to answer her when it broke onto my consciousness that I'd tacked "Love you, Shannon" onto...

What I’m Tempted to Do When Another Black Man Gets Killed

Currently, my Facebook newsfeed teems with anger, grief, and arguments about Terrance Crutcher and Keith Scott, the last two black men killed by cops, and the protests their deaths have sparked. I’m tempted to take that break from Facebook I always think...

When Work Makes Me Angry

Let's be honest, we've all had days where work makes us angry. Thanks to Chris Dortch for being honest about it for the Finding God at Work series.    *                   *                    *   Blasted crape myrtles. I know most people wouldn’t describe...

The One Sentence That Changes Everything

I almost hate to admit it, but every time I pick up a new book by C. S. Lewis, after the first chapter, I check the cover to make sure Amazon mailed me the right book. By the end of the second, I’m questioning the cultish love that Evangelicals hold for...

Wading through Hurt, Work, and Worship

Thanks to Kate Knapp, LMHC, for contributing to my Finding God at Work series on how she experiences God through her work as a therapist. Check out her free counseling videos or follow her on Facebook.   *                    *                   *  Although...

Sometimes I Wish God Had Signed Me Up for the Group Plan

I dug into my brownie Sunday as I asked him to catch me up on the last fourteen years. Jeremiah and I had lost touch after college and only recently reconnected via Facebook. Despite more than a decade of silence, we fell back easily into friendship. We’d...

How Nausea Reminds Me that I Still Need God

Thanks to Sarita Fowler for sharing how God cares about the little stuff at work. This blog is part of the Finding God at Work series.  *           *          * At nine weeks pregnant I felt nauseated every morning. But when my agency asked me to interpret...

Let’s Fire the Imaginary Critics from our Lives

Several months ago I signed up for eHarmony to prove to all the imaginary critics in my life that I was doing my part to get married. You know, all those people out there who mutter under their breath about how I'd be married if I just tried harder. By the...

3 Reasons Why Forgiveness is a Good Plan for the Holidays

* This article first appeared on Patheos on November 9, 2016.   “This isn’t middle school anymore,” one of my ninth grade teachers used to say whenever someone complained about homework, “it’s not a bunch of warm fuzzies.” Neither is forgiveness, and...

Dead Saturday

  I have a hard time with Holy Saturday. A Good Friday service promises to weigh me down with my sin, the wetness of Jesus' blood, and the distress in his voice as he cries into the darkness, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" And I can wake up Easter...

Pills or Prayer?

This post first ran at Fathom Magazine on February 12, 2018.  *     *     *     *     * She slumped in her chair as I again suggested that she might be depressed. She teared up, but declined a prescription. Her husband, a leader in the church, believed...

4 Dangers to Cutting the Edges off God’s Story

I tried to peel myself off the alley as the Spanish words got louder, men's voices, but my Columbia pants stuck to the dirt. My bones ached and bowels churned. Montezuma was mounting his revenge and it was one of the worst hours of my life.     It was also...

3 Reasons I Find It Hard to Get Excited About Heaven

I love Jesus, but if God is handing out spiritual report cards, I'm probably getting an F when it comes to getting excited about Heaven.* The Apostle Paul—who tells us to imitate his faith—says, "I desire to depart and be with Christ" (Phil 1:23), but when I...

2 Things I Never Saw in the Lord’s Prayer: Part 1

A stranger's fingers grip mine. The words reverberate from my throat and into my ears. Liturgy is new for me--but stepping into the same words every Sunday works like a garden hoe on my heart. After weeks and months of hands grasping mine as we pray...

How to Pray When God Doesn’t Seem To Care

Sometimes mom said "no," but that never stopped me from asking. If I didn't smell chocolate chip cookies as soon as I opened our front door after school, I'd request a snack. Sometimes she made me wait for dinner, but not always, so every day I asked. I had...

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