“Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.” How many times did we say this to someone growing up? How many times have you heard it before? When I said this as a kid, it was because someone had said something hurtful and mean to me, and I said it to cover up the fact that those words did hurt.
Writing When It Hurts
September 13, 2017 by
Writer and activist James Baldwin concluded, “The price for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.” When I answered the call to preach the gospel, the invitation was delivered by one of Gabriel’s mail-angels.
She has Blue Hair. She is Not Your Grandma.
August 17, 2016 by
Getting to the auditorium late was bad enough. Then I had to find a seat. After several “oh, it’s saved” interactions I finally found seating next to a 14-year-old girl with electric blue hair.
Praying Hard
May 5, 2015 by
Praying is difficult but it is even more so trying when you don’t want to talk, when the words are stuck in your throat and it hurts to talk. And you know that the only way to make the pain go away is to let it out, to get it out.
Breaking Things
November 26, 2014 by
I am not terribly clumsy and yet I have a way of breaking things. Now, I am not the artist that my cousin Stan was. When we were boys, I dreaded when Stan, who was a few years younger than I, came to our house because he would want to play with my toys and any toy that Stan touched broke.
Mending the Saints: Teaching That Helps Us Heal
April 24, 2014 by
If you polled your congregation about why Sunday school matters, would they agree that it does? Would specifics about class content rank high on their response list?
“I love studying those dietary laws in Leviticus.”
“Learning that the Corinthians had more problems than we do actually helped us.”