Do you ever feel panicky about reading the Bible? Bored? Indifferent? Guilty? This e-book is for you. It’s goal isn’t to get you to read the Bible more. It’s not to erase your ambivalence about the Bible. No: the goal is much simpler: get you naked and honest before God. Want the link? Join my blog below: Email …
Abusers are people too
Trigger warning: sexual abuse When I was a junior in college, my mom called with bad news. “Heather,” she said, “Someone made allegations about [my youth pastor’s name]. She said he molested her.” My first reaction? Complete disbelief. Our youth pastor had inspired both love and disdain in our church. His whole tenure, various leaders …
I am trying to forgive my grandmother. Here’s why.
(Trigger warning—sexual abuse) My grandmother is slight, white-haired, slow to speak, and nearly lost to dementia. For a year or so now, she has been in a nursing home, unwillingly. Years ago when I would visit, she would serve me breakfast: a bowl of fresh home-grown raspberries in a white bowl, or toast with homemade freezer jam that …
The power the good witch wields: #wordmadeart
This week’s prompt for the Word Made Art is to have a kid draw something in your Bible. Honestly, this one scared me. You’d think being a homeschooling mom, getting my kids involved in my projects would be a no-brainer. But the honest truth, my hermit’s heart is alive and well. I love my kids, …
Am I ashamed of my privilege and wealth?
When my sister would come home from the children’s home on visits, the first thing we would do was show each other our stuff. I watch my children doing this with friends: a sort of inventory-as-friendship. After all, until you know what’s exciting and fresh and new, how can you decide what to play? So …
Strength out of trash: #wordmadeart
This week’s #wordmadeart prompt is to make some pages of your Bible smaller. It’s lifted straight out of one of Keri Smith’s book, Wreck This Journal. I thought the idea of pages of the Bible becoming bigger or smaller seemed particularly evocative. One reason: it’s the way we read scripture, right? Some pages, like the first …
Using My Bible to Process Sexual Abuse at Church
(Trigger warning: rape and abuse) In my Bible-turned-art-installation, I decided to draw a map of the church I (sporadically) attend, the same one I’ve been attending for twenty-three years. I made my first public confession of faith there. I married there, baptized my kids there. I led worship and served as a small group leader. Most …
Better faith information will not save our lives
This is the second in a series of three posts about boundary-keeping in the church. Namely, how do we decide who is really “Christian”, and how do those dividing lines make people feel? I recognize that boundaries, theology, and creeds are essential for deciding what we believe, and who we are. But the practice of drawing lines is …
I didn’t know Jesus was with me because another Christian told me He wasn’t.
This is the first in a series of three posts about boundary-keeping in the church. Namely, how do we decide who is really “Christian”, and how do those dividing lines make people feel? I recognize that boundaries, theology, and creeds are essential for deciding what we believe, and who we are. But the practice of drawing lines …
I didn’t know Jesus was with me because another Christian told me He wasn’t.Read More
in your face love: #wordmadeart
Generally, as an artist, if the idea of creating something makes you want to weep, it is golden and you must immediately do it. This was one of those projects. The prompt was to use pop-up book techniques to transform one of the Bible pages. My parents brought back some old photos from my grandma’s house. Among …
When It’s Easier to Be Alone
Allrighty-then. Here’s my contribution. “So in this new year, how are you going to take care of yourself?” my therapist, Lola, asked me the other day. I stared at her, blinking. A normal person would know what to say to a question like this. Self-care. Self-care. The fact that I couldn’t answer her quickly did not bode well …
Cutting a hiding place in scripture: #wordmadeart
So the project I was most eager to start with was making a hidey hole in my Bible. Why? I am a murder mystery aficionado. Nothing says “Hercule Poirot” like a secret compartment cut in a book. ROMANCE. Again, a hiding place in a book? It’s so any kind of old-timey literature. All those verses about …
upside down and backwards: Recovering the Bible
You ready to start The Word Made Art?? The first project is to recover the Bible. In both senses of the word. (Wheeeee!) So last week, I introduced you to my Bible. Here it is again: Here’s the inside. (A little busy. Also: How did I write that small?): I gathered materials: I crumpled up the grocery bag …
I’m going to wreck my Bible. Here’s why.
Meet my Bible from college. “Nice to meet you,” it says. I got this Bible when I attended Intervarsity’s missions conference in 1996.. It was compact, so when I left the next year for Argentina, I took this Bible with me. It was the first Bible I read all the way through. And it was …
Three questions to ask before you do something scary
Ever since I started a website about saying ‘yes’ to things, I’ve been trying to take intentional risks. But as I practice being brave in the everyday, I’ve realized something important. Fears are not equal-opportunity. Years ago, I pushed past fears about writing, and felt like I’d put myself through a meat-grinder. Honestly, the fallout hamstrung my …
Three questions to ask before you do something scaryRead More
It’s darker and more beautiful to start with the nothingness inside: One Woman’s Yes with Esther Emery
Oh, guys, you’re in for a treat. Esther Emery chatted with me for an hour about faith, and motherhood, and realizing she’s not a porcelain person, and I was blessed. I think you will be too. Her writing and life always remind me that I have choices. About everything. Which is heady and wonderful and terrifying and bold. Won’t you …
You Can Change for the Better In an Instant
“Look, Mama,” my youngest said. I was at my desk, a few feet from our dining table. Both my daughters were busy with markers and colored pencils; stray copy paper and card stock littered the shining surface. I pressed send on my email, then got up and walked over to her. And almost gasped with surprise. …
A tale of two Bibles
When I need a Bible, I reach for my husband’s. It’s leather-bound with his name embossed on the front. His parents gave it to him. Tucked inside is a fabric cross his mom needle-pointed with a few spindly pink irises. Parts of the spine are cracked and peeling off glossy finish, and it has a …
An Unlikely Hunger for God’s Word
I was a junior in college when my Bible study leader, Tina, recommended that I memorize Scripture. She pulled out a card from her pocket to show me. “I write my memory verse on this and carry it in my pocket,” she said. In her neat printing, it read, Blessed is the one …whose delight …
What Creative Work Taught Me About the Bible
I have read the Bible in church and youth group and para-church ministries. I’ve done Bible seminars and one-day trainings and workbooks. I’ve read the Word in another language and culture, read the whole shebang a handful of times. I’ve done word studies and topic studies and inductive studies and Lectio Divina. But the longer …
Why I Wrote an Unlikely Devotional, Unquiet Time
The twenty-something’s group met at a house, people packed in a small living room, on the floor, couches, chairs, stools at the breakfast bar. I sat sandwiched among these new friends, stomach a little tight. Every week, I wanted the Bible study to be great, to remind me why I’d decided to keep calling myself a Christian. …
The thing you fear might save your life
As a kid, I hated writing. In sixth grade, my teacher called in my mom for a parent-teacher conference over the state of my journal. Mrs. Kimmerling required a page a day. There was a space above for drawing a picture, and a space below for writing anything you wanted. We were graded on the …
Let us proclaim the mystery of faith: One Woman’s Yes with Michelle DeRusha
When I saw the title of Michelle DeRusha’s memoir, Spiritual Misfit, I knew I had to read it. So much of the good things in my faith recently have flowered because I’ve come to terms with having a quirky, mysterious, and cobbled-together faith. I really recommend her book. Michelle manages to make faith and doubt seem everyday, …
Let us proclaim the mystery of faith: One Woman’s Yes with Michelle DeRushaRead More
Life Is Process, Not Product
I like checking things off lists. Dishes? Check. Returning emails? Check. Meeting goals? Check. There’s a cleanliness to a completed task, a finished goal, a project brought to fruition. But I’m realizing that the most important things in my life can’t be checked off. Because there isn’t a point where they’re done, or finished. They …