Pastor Mike Todd’s message on racial reconciliation, re-presented, is the best out there on Christians’ role in racial healing. Watch the video, read the notes, change your life.
Author: Ellie
No one is good except God (or: how I learned to stop worrying and love Black Lives Matter)
This is not about platforms, organizations, agendas, or performance. This is about all of humanity getting free from sin. Our liberation is bound up together.
O come all ye faithful
A poem about how Jesus isn’t surprised by your failure in the face of racism–and still calls you to love.
To speak truth in love, you must speak
Although white-woman-wokeness is trendy right now and I hate bandwagons, something tectonic has shifted in me, and now I can no longer balk at the fear of imperfection and conflict that has positioned me against people I love by default. It’s time to break the seal of silence and be willing to imperfectly stand and speak the truth in love.
Holy rest: the power of sabbatical
Sabbatical (noun): from the Hebrew agricultural term “shmita,” referring to a year-long break from working the land to allow it to rest and heal in God’s care rather than man’s. I have never successfully returned from a sabbatical. Every time I’ve taken a break from writing, whether personal or self-improvement or fiction, it’s ended up …
He calls you as you are not
God calls out who you are long before it’s who you are. Just before the Unpleasantness, I found an extremely abridged version of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” at the thrift store (remember those?) and scooped it up for Mackenzie. She found it over the weekend, so we read it together. She was …
For my big-little girl on her 4th birthday
You don’t fit on my lap anymore.I can barely carry you.Not that you’re ever still enough for either. You are a giant.Taller than your older friends,mountainous in your anger,a cathedral of words and laughter. You walk on tiptoe everywhere,Your dance more irritated bumblebee than prima ballerina. You have a favorite version of the Bible,But you …
If Mary can be okay with it, so can I
This Sunday is anything but still around here. Not only are we celebrating Mothers Day pandemic-style, but it’s also my daughter’s 4th birthday. Dang moveable holidays. I confess part of me is annoyed. My flesh wants a day just for me! Momming during Covid-19 is harder than it’s ever been, and it’d be nice to …
You’re not from around here
I’m homesick, guys. With all the travel and immigration restrictions, my soul is longing for a place it can’t go, for the family I left behind, for a life we planned but may not have now. If you didn’t know, I’m an American expat (I think of myself as an alien–it’s cooler). I’ve lived in …
Would Jesus talk about you the way you talk about you?
CHECK IN: What’s your self-talk like these days? I bet it’s way worse than usual. Mine sure is. Here’s just a sample of the names I’ve called myself in the past couple days. LoserFailureLazyBullySelfishHoarderUnfit parent I’ve also repeatedly “reassured” myself with thoughts like, “It’s okay that your body isn’t young anymore. You were never pretty …