Awkward Christian
I heard you are a Christian correct? same here. So I have a problem. I’m a Christian girl and I go to school with this guy. Previously he said he liked me but I turned him down. But when I seen him at school I realized that I might possibly like him. There’s only one …
Ask the Awkward Christian: I’m Christian, He’s Trans.Read More
If you’re looking for resources to begin to confront the history of racism in our country, here are books (nearly all) by people of color that have been helpful to me. These are all ACHINGLY beautiful or incisive or helpful books. We don’t read them because we should. We read them because they are amazing …
Dear Awkward, My wife is late for almost everything we do. I am the type that believes, “If you’re not 10 minutes early, you’re 10 minutes late.” Marital discord has become a consequence. Any advice? JimDawg Growing up, my mom set our kitchen clock ahead fifteen minutes to help us leave the house on time. …
Dear Awkward, I just got divorced and am really struggling with how to handle my new reality. My ex has many of the symptoms of a covert narcissist. During our marriage, I always felt something was “off” but didn’t know what, and I made many mistakes trying to figure it out. During our 10-year separation, …
Dear Awkward, I struggle with insomnia. My mind will simply not “turn off” at bedtime as I have to analyze my day. For example, I’ll wonder if I said something bad about someone behind their back. How do I turn off my magnificent brain? Sincerely, Magnificent Dear Magnificent, When I was in elementary school, my …
Dear Awkward: How Can I Turn Off My Magnificent Brain?Read More
Dear Awkward, My 23 year old son failed out of college last year and has been half-living his life since. He had a job as a sales clerk at a local sporting goods store, but then he got falsely accused of something and he quit. Then he went back to school for a little bit, …
Dear Awkward, I’ve felt like a walking disaster since being in junior high around all the “churched” kids. I failed sword drills and just about everything since. But I love Jesus with all my heart and I know He sees the true me. I married a Christian man who suffered greatly in his youth at …
Dear Awkward: Help! My family is a crazy mess at church.Read More
Dear Awkward, God spoke to me in 2017 and told me that a gentleman that attends church with me would become my husband. Well, it’s 2019 and it hasn’t happened yet, although God speaks to me frequently about the situation. My question is, what does God want me to do while I’m waiting? Why would …
Dear Awkward: Help! God said I would get married. I’m still single.Read More
Dear Awkward, I work at a large Fortune 500 company. Recently one of my coworkers, Carlos, was promoted and now leads a small team. Since the promotion, Carlos has been trying to assert his new authority—even over people, like me, who don’t work for him. For example, in meetings with senior executives, he mansplained the …
Dear Awkward, What do you think if the Instagram account @preachersnsneakers? How do you see wealth, spending, and responsibility in church and or in the kingdom? Is there a place for judgement? Mara Dear Mara, After I received your question, I decided to re-take the Slavery Footprint survey, and discovered that I, personally, employ 52 …
If I had a nickel for every time I did NOT read my Bible, I’d be a very rich woman. Just last Good Friday, after resolving to read my Bible each day during Holy Week, I found myself procrastinating and anxious, putting off doing the very thing I knew would make the day feel meaningful. …
Can I confess something? Every year, Lent stresses me out. Ash Wednesday, the traditional start to the season, approaches, and I think how am I going to commemorate Lent this year? Traditionally, Christians choose some sort of fast for the 40 days before Easter, and participating in that tradition genuinely blesses me. But the decision-making about what to give up is an invitation for major performance anxiety. …
I used to think goals were like rock climbing, or more specifically, like those tiny little plastic handholds in an indoor climbing gym. When I set goals, it was like choosing, with zero understanding, the shape and size of each grip, as well as their placement on a sheer cliff face. Once they were installed, …
A lot of time when people talk about setting goals, they say goals make us more focused, productive, and successful. Quote honestly, I think wanting to be more productive is a TERRIBLE reason to set goals. That sounds stressful and unappetizing to me. You see, goals aren’t about doing more, being more, or becoming someone …
A Little Yes Live: Goals that Nurture Your Inner ToddlerRead More
Does your faith often feel more like a to-do list than a place of respite? Do service projects, devotionals, Bible study, committees, Sunday school service, and discipleship sometimes feel like a full-time, very thankless job? At the root of our overwhelming faith are choices. We make thousands of tiny decisions to say yes instead of …
Your deep negative emotions about your schedule matter. Do not explain them away with pretty verses like “I can do all things in Christ”.
My Schedule is So Busy I Don’t Even Know How to Cut Something. Help!Read More
Looking back, it’s still hard for me to pinpoint just where I went wrong in that conversation. I love the earnestness of the girl on that staircase, her eagerness to seek virtue, her willingness to have a hard conversation. I admire her desire to please God, to make wise choices, to follow the counsel of people she respected. But underneath it all, I imagined God as a kind of benevolent torturer.
Last night, after I finished packing for a long trip, I decided to move all my succulents outside for the duration of our weeklong vacation. I have nine pots of various sizes on the bookshelves in our front room: one tiny barrel cacti, four plants that look like desert seaweed, and assorted echeveria in dark …
Houseplants Are Zombies of the Apocalypse: The MudroomRead More
I read my first and only Frank Peretti novel in ninth grade. My sister, Katie, brought it with her when she moved back from the children’s home where she’d lived for the last seven years, along with her collection of pig tchotchkes and a thin copy of the Living Bible. In the room we suddenly shared, …
I would experience menopause eventually. But who would I change into? Would I like that person when I met her?
Generally, clicking “Buy Now” shouldn’t make your hands shake. It shouldn’t make your stomach tie in knots or pump adrenaline through your body. You shouldn’t feel so jittery you want to run screaming from your computer. But that’s exactly how I felt the morning I sat down to purchase a web domain name for a …
How Courageous Persistence Can Lead to Hope: For iBelieveRead More
The summer I was seventeen, I gave my life to Agatha Christie. Curling on the floor of my room, I read a book a day. I liked Hercule Poirot best, then Miss Marple, then Harley Quin. I did not care for Tommy and Tuppence. At the beginning of the summer, I felt as though I would …
The sirens sounded behind me as I rounded the corner in my beat-up Camry. It was late 1999; I was 21. It never feels good to get pulled over by the police, but when the cop told me I had an expired registration, I wanted to sink into the floor. The notice to renew was …
Growing up, I felt most at home in the desert. In our neighborhood in the foothills of Tucson, there were undeveloped tracts of Sonoran Desert around each house. I viewed all that land as my backyard and became as familiar with its thorny inhabitants as I was familiar with my bookshelves. There was the hook-headed …
